Student assistance areas: relations with academic achievement, dropouts and psychosocial development

The Programa Nacional de Assistência Estudantil (PNAES) is a governmental politic that aims to reduce dropouts and low grades in federal public universities, specifying 10 areas to work on and achieve the results proposed. Different studies indicate that dropout decision, academic grades and psychosocial development among university students are affected by contextual, personal, relational and academic factors. In the context of a recently created multicampi university, this study aims to identify the relation of dropout intention, academic grades, and perception of psychosocial development with PNAES areas. Results indicated low or inexistent relations were observed between the main variables and PNAES areas. Results also pointed out the importance of psychosocial development on the variables analised. Implications of these results for politics improvement and possible actions for academic support are discussed.

Key words:
College students; Dropouts; Academic achievement; Psychosocial development