The student’s craft: The entrance to university life

Abstract

The development of higher education is a major asset for social development and for that of a society of knowledge, all over the world. In Brazil, as in France, a phenomenon of mass enrolment at university has occurred over the past few years. For some, it is a sign of the democratisation of higher education. The democratisation is real regarding enrolling at university, but access to knowledge is, conversely, marked by inequality. Indeed, first year students have extremely different levels of competence, and after they have enrolled at university, freshmen often experience serious difficulties. In France, students fail or are reoriented massively during their first year at university. This is an indication of how difficult the passage from high school to university is. The author rests his studies on empirical research, and demonstrates that the students who have not managed to affiliate to their new world fail or drop out, as success in higher education implies learning the job of being a student. The passage from high school to university comes with substantial changes in the students’ relations to knowledge. The rules differ, they are more sophisticated, more complex and more symbolic and have to be rapidly assimilated by the new students. The author raises the question of a pedagogy of affiliation, illustrating his purpose with two examples of successful experiments that he carried out: having the students write a diary on a daily basis on the one hand, having them learn the methodology of library work on the other hand. These two activities are easily carried out and are efficient in helping freshmen successfully enter their new world: the world of ideas.