HIGHER EDUCATION AND NEW TARGET GROUPS

Abstract

The implementation of the Bologna Process inthe Portuguese Higher Education system led to deepchanges at this educational level. In order to harmonize andto level the Portuguese higher education with otherEuropean countries several measures were determined,including access expansion, especially for new targetgroups. Among others the +23 year old students andTechnology Specialization Courses (CET) are considerednew target groups. In order to understand the evolution ofnew public courses in Engineering and Technology atUniversity of Minho, a study of students who enteredthrough the quotas of the academic years 2005/2006 to2010/2011 was carried out in order to analyze the academicpath. Understanding their journey in higher education canhelp to improve the system of teaching and learning of thisnew audience. This paper compares those two groups’performance in order to understand the difference betweenthem and the ordinary students.

Index Terms - Higher Education; New university target;Academic path.