592928

research-article2015
JHHXXX10.1177/1538192715592928Journal of Hispanic Higher EducationMouraz and Sousa

Article
Journal of Hispanic Higher Education
2016, Vol. 15(3) 221­–239
An Institutional Approach to © The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1538192715592928
“Projeto FEUP” Case Study jhh.sagepub.com

of a Portuguese University

Ana Mouraz1 and Armando Sousa1

Abstract
This article intends to debate the institutional modes of first-year adjustment to
higher education. Specifically, the aim is to analyze and consider the need to include
social and academic integration activities in the curricular programs. The presented
contributions are based on the investigations over the case study course that was
studied using non-experimental and descriptive approach. The “Projeto FEUP”
(Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto) course is analyzed as it addresses
the mentioned integration concerns explicitly by providing tutoring by selected older
students (relating to social integration) and adequate teamwork challenges (relating
to academic integration). The presented case study course is given to about 1,000
students across nine engineering degrees at the Faculty of Engineering of University
of Porto, in Portugal. The article includes some details about not infrequent practices
such as “hazing” of newcomer students and strategies for circumventing associated
disadvantages. The results shown in the article indicate that the students involved
tend to see it as a significant academic integration device, regarding mainly academic
work and expectations.

Resumen
Este manuscrito intenta debatir los modos de ajuste institucional del primeraño
en educación superior. Específicamente, la meta fue la de analizar y considerar la
necesidad de incluir actividades de integración académica y social en programas
curriculares. Este estudio está basado en investigaciones sobre la clase de estudio

1University of Porto, Portugal

Corresponding Author:
Ana Mouraz, Centre for Research and Intervention in Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational
Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, Porto 4200-135, Portugal.
Email: anamouraz@fpce.up.pt

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222 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

de caso, la cual se revisó usando el método descriptivo y no-experimental. Los

resultados indicaron que los estudiantes involucrados tienden a verlo como un
aparato significativo de integración académica, principalmente en relación al trabajo
académico y las expectativas.

Keywords
first-year adjustment, social integration, academic integration, higher education,
higher education achievement

Introduction
Over the last three or four decades, higher education (HE) in Portugal has been democra-
tized along with the rest of its civil society. This process means that it is increasingly
common to get a HE degree in Portugal and that this is most likely to be accessible to all
(in Portugal, graduate population rose from 550 thousand to 1,200 thousand over the last
12 years1). In Portugal, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP;
2011) hosts about 8,500 students in year 2011 and numbers are growing. Naturally, a high
growth in number and diversity of students occurred with regard to their social, academic,
and economic background. Students have increasingly different experiences, habits, and
varying effective levels of education. Such massification process, if done without care,
would lead to overlook different individual educational needs and would sometimes
undermine effective work capacity of the student therefore limiting his or hers academic
potential. These issues mean that overall complete and effective integration is of para-
mount importance and an added personal challenge to many newcomer students.
FEUP and many other large HE institutions (HEIs) consider full integration as an
important concern that should not be overlooked. This article intends to debate the
institutional modes of first-year adjustment to HE identifying specific issues to
Portugal that may be applicable in many other HEIs. Specifically, the aim is to analyze
and consider the need to include social and academic integration activities in the cur-
ricular programs and also characterize costs and benefits of the current implementa-
tion of the “Projeto FEUP” Course (PFC) of FEUP.
This article will start by presenting the PFC and discuss integration dimensions
from a theoretical point of view—This is necessary to organize the methodological
framework to evaluate the case study. After presenting the methodology of the study,
the research questions are enumerated. The next section presents results and findings
of the study that led to the conclusions shown in the last part of the article.

Promoting Integration—The “Projeto FEUP” (PF)

FEUP is a very large HEI that may be said to have been massified, in a highly competi-
tive environment, in a country in deep economic crisis.2 Each year there are more than
900 new students in FEUP’s camp in the engineering programs covered by PF. The

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Mouraz and Sousa 223

total number of students enrolled in the year 2011-2012 is 944 (FEUP, 2011). Although
at FEUP no incidents regarding hazing have occurred, other Portuguese universities
have had important incidents (deadly accidents involving hazing practices3) and the
discussion has risen to national debate at top minister level politics. All these factors
contribute to the need to explicitly address first-year adjustment in as many issues as
possible, under a viable budget.

Course
To clearly convey the message of the importance given to first-year adjustment issues,
several integration activities were designed. If such activities are mandatory and take
up students’ time, then they should have European Credit Transfer and Accumulation
Systems (ECTSs)4 associated with it. To be taken seriously and ensure the students’
attention, they have to be graded, which means that such activities will benefit from
being organized into a course.

Implementation
The mentioned course is named “Projeto FEUP” (PF) and has a very special imple-
mentation—one initial week exclusively for this course followed by a half semester in
parallel with the rest of the courses from the specific engineering program the students
enrolled. During this half semester, students have weekly lessons of 2 hr with monitors
(older students), and the supervisors (professors) go by about half of that time to make
sure things are running smoothly and keep up the quality and the rhythm of work.
To keep costs limited and quality high—get the best professors—the PFC is com-
mon to all engineering programs solely taught at FEUP and organized centrally. Its
implementation rests partly in using the main 500 people auditorium.
The foundations for the PFC are it should include all the diversity of the incoming
freshmen, should be teamwork oriented, and teams should be of unknown partners.
The initial exclusive week includes receptions, formations, and visits to the campus.
Also during that week, a technical theme is assigned to a team of about six freshmen.
That work should preferably be engineering oriented so that it can be useful for scien-
tific knowledge and simultaneously promote students “blending-in” and getting up to
full speed quickly. Work themes should allow for research and debate and be of ade-
quate complexity. The work theme is proposed by the FEUP’s professor, the “Supervisor”
and is imposed to the team. Coordination among professors ensures that there are
always two different approaches to themes that means that students are encouraged to
talk to other teams. The supervisor has the final responsibility for grading each student
and plays a decisive role in setting the standards of the work to be produced.
The work produced by the team regarding the theme is used to produce three deliv-
erables of different nature: a written report, a poster, and an oral presentation. This
triple approach is prepared in the formations of the initial week and is to be seen as the
fostering of soft skills and a limited taste of engineering approach while demanding
group interaction and task division (etc.).

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224 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

To make sure the team is balanced and it gets up to full working speed very quickly,
the teams are created based on a quiz (Borges, Dias, & Cunha, 2009) that distributes
leaders and workers per team (even if in real work situations, this situation is not
always true).
To work in the theme, all teams are assigned a monitor who is an older student, paid,
well selected, and trained for team management and integration issues. The payment is
needed to attract the best students but it must be said that payment per hour of work is
somewhat low. The monitor is of paramount importance to the PFC—he or she is sup-
posed to be someone who the freshmen can easily talk to and who will give them valued
help in their integration process. Monitors are also mediators between the supervisor
professor and the team, someone knowledgeable enough to be respected yet not inac-
cessible and who can explain what the supervisor expects of the newcomers.

Outcomes
Specific skills and outcomes include getting to know and using FEUP’s campus spaces,
locations, and services. Integration into a HE lifestyle includes participation and identi-
fying the intentions of several types of classes and adapting to new levels of standards.
Communication is encouraged by the need to produce the team’s work and associated
deliverables and with the natural interaction with the monitor and supervisor.
The written report is also supposed to improve scientific analysis and allows a first
approach at issues such as citations, ethics, and plagiarism.
The poster is meant to address issues regarding visual communication, from syn-
thesis capability to adequately constructing powerful figurative illustrations from
complex issues (charting, etc.). Poster printing is mandatory and so campus services
are used.
The oral presentation is important to disseminate results and to provide a formal
communication for interactive discussion of the work done. Presentations are done to
jury and public who, at the end of the presentation, promote discussion.

Theoretical Framework
Integration is broadly considered as a multifold issue, dealing with individual well-
being of the newcomer student and associated ability to perform well the learning
tasks associated with the student activity.
To the present article’s use, from an institutional point of view, integration is a pro-
cess under which institutions incorporate new students in the academic and learning
environment (Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 2003). From the individual’s point of view,
integration is the acquisition of a new way of facing issues and incrementing the feel-
ing of belonging to the new organization.
It is widely recognized that students’ characteristics (and their precollege experi-
ences) contribute and influence whether they will enroll in college and whether they
will persist and attain their educational objectives (Kuh, Kinzie, Brian, Bridges, &
Hayek, 2006).

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Mouraz and Sousa 225

College experience itself includes two central features: students’ behaviors and
institutional conditions. Students’ behaviors include such aspects as the time and effort
students put into their studies, interactions with faculty, and peer involvement.
Institutional conditions include resources, educational polices, and structural features
(Kuh et al., 2006).
These issues are of concern after access (getting into HE academia) and before suc-
cess, meaning that meaningful success implies a certain degree of integration.
Access to HE alone does not necessarily imply success (Formosinho, 2007). It is
also necessary to ensure an adequate curriculum that includes adequate scientific con-
tent as well as curricula or activities to promote integration that will allow students to
effectively adhere to issues being taught and the HEI’s work practice. The toll of fail-
ing integration is large as this will most certainly lead to failure in acquisition of deep
knowledge or even leading to dropping out of HE altogether (Costa & Lopes, 2008).
In addition, time-to-degree in HE also depends on integration: “promoting student
performance at the beginning of the program significantly speeds student progress
toward a degree” (Lassibille & Navarro Gómez, 2011, p. 78).
It is useful to divide the field of the adjustment to college life in two main dimen-
sions: social and academic. Although the different types of integration can be identi-
fied and characterized separately, the approach taken in the evaluation for the success
of such integration types are not separable.

Social Integration
The research consistently shows that students having difficulties in social integration
tend to have lower approval rates and dropout (Baillie & Fitzgerald, 2000; Rhodes &
Nevill, 2004; Williams, 2008). Difficulties in transition to HE also degrade (social)
quality of life and generate negativistic environment that may even cause bad reputa-
tion for a given university where that problem is acute (Palmer, 2001). Such bad repu-
tation causes institutional problems to HEIs in a competitive, open market world
where HEIs compete for students. As mentioned, (social) integration has grown in
importance due to massification and is now a recurrent problem that HEIs face nowa-
days (Tait & Godfrey, 2001).
Social integration for newcomer students just arriving at HEIs concerns challenges
related to dealing with a new environment and new relationships, greater personal
freedom and its added responsibilities, especially for students away from home or
even in mobility programs such as the European programs Erasmus or Mobile (Sovic,
2009).
Social integration is, for a great amount of students, surrounded by a quantity of
stressors, namely, related with intra- and interpersonal aspects (body image, self-
esteem, stable dating relationships, adjustment with roommates and conflicts, distance
in love and family relationships, etc.). This process is possibly worsened in large cam-
puses and where numbers of students in classes is high. Such stressors may lead to
discomfort and further elevate the importance of a balanced lifestyle, in and out of the
campus.

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226 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

Students away from home may also find additional difficulties in time manage-
ment, especially during the initial settlement time, thus elevating the importance for,
for example, time management skills and planning issues to be able to accomplish all
the new challenges.
At the age students are admitted to HEIs, they are young adults who are likely to
regard belonging to a group (“tribe”) as important. In many Portuguese universities
and certainly many other HEIs, initiation rituals among students, often called hazing,
still prevail and are part of local “tradition.” Hazing rituals in HE have risen to be of
public interest in Portugal and other countries due to media coverage of complaints
and excessive practices, alleged human rights violation, and even judicial stances over
rituals that were not understood as game play. In Portugal, government directives were
issued stating clearly that “praxe” (Portuguese word for hazing) was a problem of the
school and ultimately the responsibility of the head of the school. These are currently
deep problems in society that even call for the production of a report by the local
bureau of the Human Rights Watch (Observatório dos Direitos Humanos, 2010).
Social integration is a complex issue made up of several concerns that have risen to
become a concern that must be dealt at institutional level.

Academic Integration
As mentioned earlier, another type of integration was identified. Halfway from social
integration and leading into academic integration is the ability to find work and study
partners (study friends). This promotes making the learning process lighter and groov-
ier, and induces group effect benefits such as relying on a study partner for assistance
and exchanging strategies and thoughts about the courses and associated study affairs
(Dedoussis, 2007).
Academic integration includes dealing with the student’s ability to cope with new
level of excellence (rigorous methods that were probably not used in high school envi-
ronment). The extent to which students take part in educational effective practices is
broadly defined as student engagement (Kuh et al., 2006).
Chickering and Gramson (1987, cited in Kuh et al., 2006)

underscored seven categories of effective educational practices that directly influence

student learning and the quality of their educational experiences. They are (i) student
faculty contact, (ii) cooperation among students, (iii) active learning, (iv) prompt feedback,
(v) time on task, (vi) high expectations and (vii) respect for diverse talents and ways or
learning. So, it may be said that the more students participate in academic life, the more
they learn and the more likely they are to persist and graduate from college. (p. 31)

Students’ learning process is strongly influenced, on one hand, by the amount of

time and effort they put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities,
and on the other hand, by institutions’ resources and curriculum organization, its other
learning opportunities and support services. It may be said that college adjustment, in
terms of (academic) work, also includes being able to know and use the resources of

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Mouraz and Sousa 227

the faculty (spaces, services, information services, etc.). All these issues mean that
students need some adjusting or reconfiguration of learning strategies to potentiate the
(academic) learning process, even if learning itself is a personal quest.
Knowledge about what is expected of the newcomer student and the ability to
behave in conformity to the school’s methods and regulations is also a part of the
effectiveness of the learning process, and failure will pay a heavy toll (Rhodes &
Nevill, 2004) such as low grades, failing courses, or even dropping out altogether.
Academic integration calls for students’ internal organization, self-discipline, and
planning, as advocated by the European Bologna process (European Commission,
2014). This new HE paradigm came up with reduced contact times, consequently
demanding for a greater autonomy leading to self-study times and to an academic
engaged attitude. As the vast majority of the courses are composed by several types of
classes (theoretical, practical, lab, etc.), possibly with different professors, there is the
need to tackle several personal and scientific approaches to a given topic of knowl-
edge—and this was not so in secondary school. In addition, some students tend not to
adhere well to high level of performance associated with college-level work (Rhodes
& Nevill, 2004) both in terms of scientific knowledge and in terms of the need to fol-
low a new set of very strict and very different rules. The call for autonomy and the set
of very new rules make up a demanding challenge that newcomer students must deal
for the sake of efficiency and success.
Issues regarding time management are transversal to many parts of daily life and
have already been mentioned briefly at the social integration chapter. Time manage-
ment skills also have to be adapted to a new set of challenges that are likely to include
more stringent timelines in each course, with likely more deliverables than previously,
in secondary school. Many new distracters are also present at the arrival at the HEI:
likely a new town, likely new freedom, new friends, new spaces, more traveling, less
obligatory academic activities, higher activity engagement, requests from “praxe”
hazing committees, and all such issues make careful time planning much more needed
than before.
Academic and social integration are not altogether separable, as time management
and dealing with professors or finding new study friends clearly exemplify, but these
are two dimensions of integration that, if not successful, will undermine the student’s
success in the HEI.
Student’s efficacy and success implies successful adjustment to a new set of issues
that, together with current massification and the rise in retention and dropouts cause
the need for institutional concern mainly regarding the initial adjustment to HEI.

First-Year Adjustment
As mentioned earlier, first-year adjustment of newcomer students to HEI is packed
with complexities that can no longer be overlooked.
Helping students become efficient is ever more important nowadays because the
education market is “mature” (there are many HEIs) and, in Europe, changing school
is made easier by the Bologna process, resulting in more competition and effectively

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228 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

allowing students to easily change school. In addition, as the economic crisis deepens
in many European countries (such as Portugal), students may choose to simply aban-
don the enrolled program, for example, to get lower paying works sooner. Naturally,
dropping out of university altogether has very high costs for the institution (Dedoussis,
2007) according to new governmental financing policies.
Admittedly, lack of integration has a financial impact for the HEI alongside with
potential individual and societal cost. Of course, promoting integration also will need
a budget, meaning that each HEI will have to find adequate equilibrium.
As mentioned earlier, recent research further demonstrates that early student–fac-
ulty interactions lead to interesting “mentorship” practices that should be fostered by
institutional practices: “engaging with faculty early on, students can yield greater ben-
efits through mentorship by the end of college” (Fuentes, Alvarado, Berdan, &
DeAngelo, 2014, p. 302).
From another perspective and as Bologna Reform is implemented the focus is cen-
tered on learning and quality of teaching is an institutional concern, as the institutions
are responsible for promoting the (full) learning process of the students. The European
“2020 Agenda” is an objective to have, in the European Union, more than 40% of the
population below 35 years with a HE degree by year 2020 (European Commission,
2011). To accept this challenge, institutions should (even more) plan for the adequate
promotion of the integration task and the promotion of the recognition of the impor-
tance of a healthy (and successful) academic life, even more so in a massified institu-
tion. As mentioned above, integration is an important issue and concerned institutions
should explicitly ease the initial adjustment process of newcomer students and plan
integration activities and maybe even adapt curricula for provision of such outcomes.
Integration issues are probably more acute in larger institutions that intake a large
diversity of students, with the ability to attract students further away from home, stu-
dents who frequently leave the parent’s home for the first time to come to a different
city for a HE course. In addition, college courses have generally larger classes, which
may worsen students’ sense of anonymity and further isolation. Yet another issue is
that given the specific political history of Portugal, it is not infrequent that some fami-
lies are sending their children for the first time to get HE degrees (as parents do not
have HE experience).
Other HEIs are likely to have to devise additional inclusion strategies for newcom-
ers, right from their arrival at the school. Common concern issues include ethnic diver-
sity and gender differences but such issues are not of paramount concern in a small
country of somewhat matriarchal inheritance such as Portugal5 (but the gender vari-
able was, all the same, addressed in the study).
Another issue with HE massification is that newcomer students have higher diver-
sity and lower averages. It may be related with a general lack of work rate and it may
be in the origin of the partial absence of the sense of the need of sacrifice to achieve a
goal previously achievable by only a few. With the absence of the need to work/sacri-
fice, integration conditions are even more actively necessary and, if denied, it may
degenerate in a severe dissatisfaction and, in turn, degrade the otherwise peaceful
learning environment.

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Mouraz and Sousa 229

Promoting Integration
Integration is multifold and not all issues can be addressed directly although they can
be promoted by several means that are briefly presented. The relation with PFC is also
briefly addressed.

Student’s office with psychological help.  Some schools have a student office that helps
students overcome serious health situations including psychological issues, some of
which may arise from integration difficulties. This is an interesting measure with an
important and interesting functionality of remedial nature: After having difficulties,
students acutely need a safe place to go to get help.
Although the PFC has a strong relation with the psychological help office, its con-
cern is to integrate students and hopefully prevent students from developing mental
health issues. The psychological help given by this office is neither needed nor ade-
quate to all newcomers at FEUP.

Hazing (“praxe”) and other student activities.  Hazing activities may even be interesting
for social integration but are not controlled by the school and this offers no
insurances.
Taking the Portuguese example as a case study, preventing excesses in hazing activi-
ties is also a concern of the school and if these activities are tentatively banished, other
integration techniques become necessary more than ever. Students’ dinner parties and
clubs should not be a worry for the HEI but having integrated students who learn effec-
tively should definitely be a part of the issues that institutions must provide.
The arrival of new students to the campus is sometimes dealt by liaison offices and
student organizations other than hazing committees. The issue here is again that the
codes being acquired by the newcomers are not controlled by the school but rather are
controlled by other students (groups) with different concerns than the institution.
This issue is of concern when dealing with committees of students (“hazing commit-
tees” or not) that are eager to help but that have often not understood institutional con-
cerns—in Portugal, hazing committees are, in practice, run by older students who did
not behave well in scholar issues—so-called “veteran” students—who are not examples
to follow and who may or may not have a constructive speech to newcomer students.
The PFC has informal relations with the hazing committees but does not rely or
cooperate with them. Instead, a formal partnership with the Students Association6 that
has a steady cooperation with FEUP and even has a place in the pedagogical council,
a formal institutional decision-making committee of the school. The mentioned stu-
dent association is concerned with pedagogical issues and is regularly involved in
several types of educational activities (conferences, etc.) and even has a pedagogical
branch. One of the initial talks given to newcomers inside the PF is given by a repre-
sentative of this students association.

Extracurricular activities.  Some universities foster the inclusion of newcomer students

into extracurricular activities but, for larger universities, these activities may not be in

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230 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

sufficient number and may not be able to accommodate all interested newcomer stu-
dents or otherwise may be unable to keep newcomer students interested.
The PFC is coordinated with a “trade fair” to show interesting (extracurricular)
activities to the newcomer students. The students are invited and encouraged to go and
find interesting activities, but this exhibition is not a part of the course in any way.

Tutoring (by professors).  Another strategy is to find tutors (professors or other faculty
members) who the newcomer student may turn to for additional information, guid-
ance, modeling, inspiration, and so on (Instituto Superior Técnico [IST], 2013). This
kind of “isolated” tutoring (outside of a larger envelope) was tried and abandoned in
FEUP because it is not the primary concern of professors who were concerned about
other things.
In an interesting recent study, Fuentes et al. (2014) found that fostering early inter-
action between faculty members and freshmen students served as a socialization pro-
cess in HEIs. The authors further explain that such early socialization leads to students
having more meaningful interactions with faculty members, later in the form of what
the authors call “mentorship” (student–faculty member) that includes support, role
modeling, and other expected benefits (Fuentes et al., 2014).
The PFC relies on professors to set the needed high standards and to foster student
and faculty member interaction but mediation (here addressed as mentoring) is left to
the “Monitors” done by older students.

Mentoring (by older colleagues).  Promoting integration can also be achieved by making
use of a mediator or a mentor, an older student who would be selected by the HEI to
informally counsel and mentor the newcomer student from a not-so-far-away platform
closer to the newcomer student.
Regarding the PF “Monitors,” these are mediators who are selected from senior
years, are sponsored and receive formation on team coaching and on what to say or
how to behave in frequent issues. Such frequent issues include where to redirect new-
comers for difficult psychological issues and other common troubles such as lodging,
use the diverse academic infrastructures, ideas on how to communicate with teachers
and colleagues, search for information, get to know the campus and the city, organize
their day-to-day life (concerning academic and non-academic activities) and more. It
is expected that older student mediators achieve better communication with newcom-
ers due to the temporal proximity of their own adjustment experiences and may often
tell their own stories and trade experiences among “equals.”
As monitors are well selected and in their senior years, they are supposed to have
been successful and serve as proximity role models of success (as opposed to “veter-
ans” from the hazing committees).

Boot camp.  Another type of strategy is the “Boot Camp,” as in “Training Camp.” A
boot camp is an initial adaptation period with special activities that are interesting for
a number of skills and integration. As an example, at the Delft University of Technol-
ogy, the Netherlands, there is a “boot camp”7 that takes up one initial week and includes

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Mouraz and Sousa 231

activities about general skills and a quiz. In this case, failing the quiz (grade below 7
out of 10) means that the student does not have the required skills to attend the subse-
quent course.
The PFC inherits only the inspiration of the exclusive initial week to try to briefly
and uniformly inform all newcomers to common problems and situations with initial
large formations of diverse nature. Failing the PFC (grade below 10 out of 20) is likely
to lead to informal questions being asked but does not limit access to further courses.

Research Question and Objectives

Given the mentioned context, this article tries to find the impact of the PFC in the
multifold integration of FEUP’s newcomer students. The research question is then as
follows:

Research Question 1: How effective is PFC in promoting First-Year Adjustment?

Furthermore, this article aims to analyze the need to include social and academic
integration in the HE programs. Issues of concern include the following: to evaluate
the real importance of the PFC as a device to promote first-year adjustment both in
academic and social perspectives, to assess importance given by students to integra-
tion features of the PFC, and to assess importance given by all involved parties to
integration feasibility of the PFC.

Methodological Issues
The PFC has been formally studied in several aspects: The study investigated the sev-
eral dimensions of integration mentioned in previous sections and also tried to
enlighten both policies and practices of the current life at FEUP, not only issues regard-
ing PF itself but all related matters.
Admittedly, the study uses a non-experimental and descriptive approach due to
complexity of the factors involved (integration is not a unique issue but a multifaceted
matter and is promoted by a multitude of experiences, not only the particular course
studied here) and it would not be ethical to create a control group.
Given the previously described approach, the study relied on assessing the reported
experience of all parts involved in the PFC and associated integration experience.
Therefore, integration effectiveness was assessed in the promoters’ perspectives, as
well as in the students’ view. The judgment of integration made by the promoters is
based on professional and previous experience. From the students’ point of view, inte-
gration was self-assessed. The identified matters were “triangulated” with all informa-
tion available (qualitative and quantitative), gathered by a survey at the end of the
PFC. Table 1 summarizes the evaluation framework used and key informants.
Some information was gathered from semi-directed interviews with monitors,
supervisors and the general coordinator (GC) of the course. Other (quantitative) data
were retrieved from several questionnaires to the students of the edition 2010-2011.

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232 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

Table 1.  Analysis Framework Used and Key Informants.

Key informants

Supervisors and
  Newcomer students Monitors course coordinator
Course structure ✓ ✓ ✓
Satisfaction of expectations ✓  
Supervising development ✓ ✓ ✓

Data coming from questionnaires were treated using SPSS software and data content
analysis of interviews was done using the NVivo 8 package. The questionnaires had a
Likert-type style, five levels of agreement scale, where answers of 1 would mean com-
plete disagreement and 5 would mean full agreement with the presented statement. In
addition, a univariate ANOVA was used to assess differences based on the identified
independent variables: gender, engineering program, students being away from home
or not, and students’ academic path.
The specific studied integration issues were (a) the necessity of integration at
FEUP; (b) evaluation of the efficacy of the integration process throughout the course
as seen by monitor, supervisor, and course coordinator; and (c) the student’s self-
assessment of the integration process.

Results
This section presents the actual data and associated findings.

Necessity to Promote Integration at FEUP

The policies at FEUP concerning students’ integration mainly address issues regarding
HE massification, the importance of the Horizon 2020 goals (European Commission,
2011) in the context of the Bologna Reform (European Commission, 2014). In addi-
tion, Portuguese universities face the hazing phenomena and the dangers of the lack of
options of other institutional integration means.

Many and young.  Institutional data from FEUP reveal that of 594 students just arriving
at FEUP from the first national enrollment chance, 92% of them were 18 years or less
meaning that they arrived at FEUP without delays (and this implies that most are not
bad students). Naturally, this also means most students are at peak teen ages/young
adult life and are in the process of building their personality at the time of this change.
The institutional information of the PFC available (FEUP, 2010) shows that the
announced goals include to integrate newcomer students to the important structures
that make up the workplace (for students) at the institution. This intends to promote the
feeling of a student belonging to an institution while working harmoniously and effec-
tively, aware the local set of solutions and rules to everyday problems.

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Mouraz and Sousa 233

Hazing committee “praxe.”  The GC explained that the previously mentioned need was
partly identified as the local hazing (“praxe”) committee is very active and tends to
promote a different set of “underground” rules that teaches students to get low passing
grades (10 out of 20) and be happy with it. Fatalistic speeches are common in some
students and such messages are often mistaken by newcomers as de facto rules and
may cause absenteeism and contribute to neither deep knowledge nor well-being. This
further elevates the importance of the monitor as a proximity role model with a trained
institutional speech.

Promoters’ Point of View

The integration process throughout the course was assessed as effective by its several
promoters (monitor, the supervisor, and the coordinator). This is true even if some dif-
ficulties are identified.

Discourse of difficulties.  The monitors mentioned in the interviews that frequent diffi-
culties included academic (work) integration issues such as lack of capability for
autonomous work and difficulties in dealing with the “exponential” volume of infor-
mation newcomer students had to deal with on a constant basis. One of the interviewed
monitors mentioned “it is important to teach them [newcomers] basic knowledge
about how and where to look for information . . . and not wait that someone comes to
tell them the information they need.” Albeit this comment, other information from
interviews to the newcomer students suggested that the part played by the monitor is
something close to the role played previously in secondary school by the teacher.

Advocating the importance of the monitors.  Some monitors were more concerned about
intergroup interaction than others; the rest of the monitors left this issue up to each
team to do as they pleased. No mention that either solution worked bad. Monitors did
mention that teams that found team leaders sooner tended to have the work defined
earlier and more clearly than others, possibly contributing to a better workload over
time. One other interviewed monitor mentioned that the time to work is so short (half
a semester) that some teams had not had time enough to get to know each other and
were unable get the most out of the teamwork capabilities. Some teams were begin-
ning to be effective in their work only very near the end of the course.
According to the data collected, monitors are in fact a major part of the PFC as they
are true mediators, almost friends, mentors, and models but not professors. The GC
stated very clearly that “It is upon the Monitors to transmit good work practices . . . as
students are much more likely to hear an older fellow student that any kind of lecture
in the auditorium.”
Aside from other studies, the relations of the monitors with all other parties that
collaborate in the course also have arisen from analysis of the gathered data. It must be
said that almost all monitors have also had the PF experience as a newcomer student,
which gave them a dual perspective over the course (student and monitor experience).
This allowed better advices and a more practical notion of how the classes /teamwork
sessions should be run.

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234 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

Table 2.  Data Relating to Satisfaction of the Role of the Monitor.

n Full agreement (%) Disagreement (%)

The monitor was always available to provide 506 92 1
help with our needs
The monitor helped us with the organization 504 92 1
of our team’s work
The monitor stimulated us in terms of 506 79 4
creativity and ability to complete tasks
The monitor became someone I can rely on, 501 80 5
in the near future

Integration as seen by monitors.  Three monitors were targeted for deeper interviews and
all of these had the conviction that this course has large added value to newcomer
students and valued deeply the expected outcomes the course expects to reach: inte-
gration in the faculty and in a work team. The teams that these monitors led also were
targeted for deeper interview that displayed a variety of very valid work strategies and
revealed that monitors were not seen as friends but as older fellow students. According
to the statements of the monitors, an important aspect of the work of accompanying
the teams is that the growth of the team became evident as time passes by. Another
monitor said, “At first, they didn’t work together well because they didn’t know each
other . . . when I said ‘assign tasks!’ they answered back ‘I want to get to know my
colleague [before assigning tasks]!’”

The Student’s Self-Assessment of the Integration Process

Self-identified integration (as seen by newcomer students).  Data from the quizzes that the
newcomer students answered were aggregated in two groups: one relating to the satis-
faction of the role of the monitor as a key element in the integration process and the
other regarding the satisfaction of integration in the work environment. For both cases,
the data are naturally self-assessment data: the personal perception about their own
satisfaction.

Satisfaction of monitors’ role as key integrating factor.  The collected data found that moni-
tors did play their role, as seen clearly in Table 2.
The most significant issues from Table 2 is that it was almost unanimous that the
monitor was available to help (92%) and provided help with making the team organize
itself better (92%) and thus the team was able to work better due to the monitor.
In addition, an interesting aspect is that there is a systematic difference of impor-
tance given by female students to the items regarding satisfaction of the role of the
monitor (F = 3.1, F = 2.8, F = 3.6, F = 3.6 for p < .05), as shown in Table 3. This can
be interpreted as girls value the proximity figure the monitor played more than the
boys. It was also found that younger students (age 18 or less) are more likely to con-
sider that they can rely on the monitor in a near future.

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Mouraz and Sousa 235

Table 3.  Independent Variables That Explore Systematic Differences in Appreciations of the
Role Played by the Monitor (ANOVA, F Test, p < .05).

Age 18 or
Engineering Away from less (linear
n Gender (M/F) program home or not academic path)
The monitor was always 205 Favored by F  
available to provide F = 3.1  
help with our needs 
The monitor helped us 201 Favored by F  
with the organization F = 2.8  
of our team’s work 
The monitor stimulated us 205 Favored by F Favored by  
in terms of creativity and F = 3.6 MIEQa
ability to complete tasks F = 2.6  
The Monitor became 205 Favored by F Favored by
someone I can rely on, F = 3.6 younger
in the near future  F = 2.2

Note. FEUP = Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

aMIEQ is the Chemical Engineering Program, known to steadily have a much higher percentage of women

enrolled (when compared with other courses at FEUP).

Other studied aspects showed no significant difference as to how the monitor role
was carried out.

Satisfaction of general integration goals.  Data related to the answers to the questionnaires
regarding satisfaction of general integration goals is organized into Table 4.
One interesting aspect shown in Table 4 is the high values of full agreement regard-
ing the “Integration into the work environment of the engineering program” question
(72% total agreement) indicating the proposed teamwork under the team proposed by
the supervisor on an adequate debatable topic seems to be an interesting methodology
to convey the work praxis of a given program. Much more modest agreement levels
were shown regarding work praxis at FEUP and this can be interpreted as a difficulty
in achieving a school-level recognition of codes transversal to the several engineering
programs. Regarding depreciative labels, students agreed midway and this is likely to
have to do with hazing committee influence (that targeted freshmen depreciatively
from the very first second as a part of local hazing game play).
Answers to “Get a good work team to work with in other courses” are higher in
younger students who have a more linear academic path and this was to be expected
because such students tend to have a stronger belonging feeling. Interesting is that it is
often female students who consider the course an opportunity to show off, likely
searching for recognition of work skills.
The variable of students being far away from home or not did not influence answers.
This reveals that the course does not (as was initially supposed to) have a facilitating
effect on the integration of students far away from home.
Engineering program also did not reveal any tendency.

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236 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

Table 4.  Distribution of the Results Gathered by Questionnaires Regarding Satisfaction of

the Integration Process.

Full Differences
agreement Disagreement ANOVA
(%) (%) Average n total (F-test) n
Integration into the 72  6 3.9 501  
work environment
of the engineering
program
Perceive what is 45 13 3.4 505  
expected from me at
FEUP
Opportunity to 48 24 3.2 504  
surpass difficulties in
integration, without the
depreciative label of
“Caloiro” (freshmen)
Get a good work team 59 17 3.6 506 Favored by 205
to work with in other younger
courses  F = 4.8  
Opportunity to show off 64  4 3.7 506 Favored by 205
skills I already have gender F
  F = 3.8  

Note. FEUP = Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

Discussion and Conclusion

The article wants to know how effective PF is in promoting first-year adjustment.
The results of the present study indicate that students who participated in the
PFC tended to see it as a significantly academic integration device, regarding
mainly academic work and academic expectations. Also, the role of the monitors is
seen as a rather important feature that facilitates this integration process. These
results are affected by gender issues as female students reported increased levels of
accordance to some items, namely, those that are related with monitors’ role. No
substantial differences were found, regarding other independent variables, such as
engineering program or students being away from home or not and students’ aca-
demic path.
In a broad sense, the study’s results confirm the need for a partnership felt by students
to assist and exchange strategies and thoughts about the courses and associated study
affairs (Dedoussis, 2007). PF was a device seen as able to solve that need. Also, the chal-
lenge of new levels of excellence, usually associated to academic integration, and
respective students’ engagement (Kuh et al., 2006) was also developed and recognized
by monitors and supervisors. Therefore, the course ensures the main tasks related with

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Mouraz and Sousa 237

academic integration, as it allows to identify the new work standard and expectations
(and get prompt feedback), find a first work team in FEUP, develop peer recognition
of individual qualities (and the qualities of the team), and share responsibilities.
Another conclusive assumption is that the course ensures work integration and ref-
erents regarding the institutional culture (Becher & Trowler, 2001), as proven by the
quality of the deliverables produced that are presented publically and final course
grades, as mentioned by monitors and supervisors. In short, newcomers are integrated
into HE lifestyle.
Another important conclusion is the recognition that the monitor plays an important
role in integration purposes.
Regarding social integration purposes, namely, to these students who are away
from home, it was not possible to conclude that PF is the best solution to promote this
goal. The culture of welcoming new students in FEUP changed in the fact that older
students are involved regularly in the task and perform a mediator role between the
expectations of the institution and the expectations of the newcomer students. However,
the institutional policies still support the PF endeavor, even if several isolated not-
involved professors remain skeptical regarding students’ integration issues. There is
also some disbelief regarding the course being developed in a scholar way (with
ECTSs and continuous grade 0-20). This means that belonging to a group and to
develop group awareness could likely be better performed by other social and cultural
practices that life in academia also allows.
The results of this study underscore the importance of institutional offer regard-
ing students’ integration into a HE lifestyle. In this sense, PF seems to be a multifold
curricular offer that helps students to develop the awareness on what is important to
be an engineer (and do this in a short amount of time). These results and
conclusions are in line with other HEIs’ concerns regarding the effectiveness of their
programs to promote social and academic integration, but with an innovative
implementation.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article: This work is financed partly by FEUP—Faculty of Engineering
of the University of Porto—and partly by the ERDF—European Regional Development Fund—
through the COMPETE Program (operational program for competitiveness) and by National
Funds through the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology)—within project “FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022701.” Ana Mouraz is
funded by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology) within the strategic project of Science2007. The
authors also thank CIIE—Centre for Research and Intervention in Education—for the support
to the publication of this article and also the partial funding involved.

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238 Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 15(3)

Notes
1. Source: http://www.pordata.pt/
2. The statement refers to the 2010~2014 “bail-out loan” by the International Monetary
Fund + European Commission + European Central Bank that imposed severe auster-
ity to Portugal and several other European countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.
php?title=2010%E2%80%9313_Portuguese_financial_crisis&;oldid=598271705”>
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2010%E2%80%9313_Portuguese_financial_
crisis&;oldid=598271705 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eurozone_crisis&;oldid=
604364030”>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eurozone_crisis&;oldid=604364030
(links accessed April 23, 2014)
3. Referring to two separate events, six deaths in December 2013 that may or may not have
been related to hazing (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/europe/student-deaths-
spark-debate-over-hazing-at-portugals-universities.html?_r=0) and also another three
deaths in April 2014, admittedly an accident during hazing practices; http://www.publico.
pt/sociedade/noticia/queda-de-muro-deixa-dois-estudantes-na-universidade-do-minho-
soterrados-1633391?page=-1#/0  http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2014/04/24/three-
students-killed-by-wall-collapse-in-portugal (links accessed April 23, 2014)
4. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) registers course effort
in the new European educational policy—http://ec.europa.eu/education/tools/ects_en.htm;
http://ec.europa.eu/education/tools/docs/ects-guide_en.pdf
5. Some provinces, especially in the north of Portugal, have (somewhat) kept matriarchal rela-
tions in the families up until recently. See, for example, “The Individuality of Portugal—A
Study in Historical-Political Geography” by Dan Stanislawski, 1959, accessible from
http://libro.uca.edu/stanislawski/Chap8.pdf (accessed April 22, 2014)
6. Institutional site: http://www.aefeup.pt/ (link accessed April 22, 2014)
7. Only limited information is available publically at http://www.studiegids.tudelft.nl/a101_
displayCourse.do?course_id=23554 (accessed April 21, 2014)

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Author Biographies
Ana Mouraz has a PhD in Educational Sciences. She is currently a researcher at the CIIE –
Centre for Research and Intervention in Education and is responsible for several research proj-
ects at OBVIE. Her current research interests include Higher Education pedagogical issues and
published several papers within the mentioned topic. She is reviewer of two international jour-
nals in the educational area.
Armando Sousa earned his PhD in 2004 in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Faculty of
Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal. He is currently an Auxiliary professor at FEUP
and a researcher at INESCTEC. His current research interests include Educational issues in Higher
Education, Automation and Robotics. He is the general coordinator for the “Projeto FEUP”. He
received several national and international awards in technical and pedagogical areas. He has
published several articles both in pedagogical as well as in the mentioned specific scientific areas
in international journals and peer reviewed conferences. He is involved in international research
projects, one in the area of education and another in the technical field. He is in the scientific panel
of several international scientific conferences and reviewer in several international journals.

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