Social origin and reasons for undergraduate dropout: an analysis of the interrupted paths of students of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Resumo

PAULA, Gustavo Bruno de  e  NOGUEIRA, Cláudio Marques Martins. Social origin and reasons for undergraduate dropout: an analysis of the interrupted paths of students of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Rev. Bras. Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.30, e300117.  Epub 13-Nov-2025. ISSN 1809-449X.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1413-24782025300117.

Based on interviews with undergraduate students who dropped out of courses at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), this article assesses, from a sociological perspective, how these students’ socioeconomic characteristics influenced the processes and reasons for their course dropouts. By grouping the students according to their socioeconomic characteristics, we identified that social background shapes the motivations for dropping out differently. Students from higher social backgrounds dropped out due to changes in academic or professional preferences, and interpret the process more positively, while students from intermediate and lower social backgrounds left their courses due to academic or financial difficulties, and experienced the process more negatively, in some cases interpreting it as a failure. The results indicate that, under the same dropout indicator, there are clearly disparate motivations, which are connected to social background.

Palavras-chave : Educational Inequalities; Higher Education Dropout; Dropout.

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