To improve first-year students’ adaptation to higher education, promote academic success, and prevent academic failure and dropout, the Rectorate of Universidade Portucalense has created the +Sucesso@UPortucalense project.
This initiative is based on four key areas of action: Fostering academic integration; Faculty training in pedagogical innovation; Predicting university dropout situations; and Monitoring students’ development, adaptation, and success – Student Observatory.
These axes are articulated with the structures and bodies for student support and faculty professional development that already exist at Universidade Portucalense, namely the Student Support Office (GAE), the Pedagogical Innovation Office (GIP), and the Pedagogical Council (CP).
The proposed initiatives will be based on a student-centred approach that puts students at the centre of the teaching and learning, guidance, and counselling processes. They will also be guided by principles of student autonomy, customization, collaboration, feedback, flexibility, and the integration of technology.
The +Sucesso@UPortucalense Project was created in December 2023 and is the result of an application to the “Impulso Mais Digital” (“More Digital Impulse”) programme of the Directorate-General for Higher Education, in response to the sub-measure “Modernização e Inovação Pedagógica no Ensino Superior – Programa de Promoção de Sucesso e Redução de Abandono no Ensino Superior” (“Modernisation and Pedagogical Innovation in Higher Education – Programme to Promote Success and Reduce Dropouts in Higher Education”).
