The problematic of the transition from the high school to the university in the Barcelona University

Abstract

This investigation approaches the transition from high school to university through a longitudinal study which tracks cohorts of first year students of different degrees at the University of Barcelona in order to analyze two types of student trajectory: abandonment or continuity. The current study examines the academic and professional profile of the students who leave or continue the studies at the end of the second university year. At the same time we evaluate the students who continue the transition process. Presented these data, the trajectory is analyzed after two years at the university, considering three criteria: academic performance outcomes, the quality of academic performance and the development of the generic competences. It has been possible to confirm that there is a series of characteristics that are present in both trajectories (abandonment and continuity). All this allows to point to those psycho-social factors of personal, familiar, social-relational and institutional nature that can be related to the quality of the academic transition and to suggest new studies towards a more comprehensive an explanatory theoretical model of the transition high school-University in this University.