Concepções políticas de estudantes da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The University has the role of training its students in a critical and transformative way. The study sought to identify the conception of students of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN on the political and citizen themes and to relate it to the sociocultural and academic characteristics of these students. For this, a structured questionnaire was applied to the students entering in 2017 and to the students of the 5th period of courses in the areas of health, technology and the social and human sciences. The present study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UFRN. The study analyzed the responses of 290 students, most of them women, from public schools, non-quota, white or yellow, religious and nonparticipants from political parties and the student movement. Overall, students demonstrated a progressive, tolerant and anti-conservative view, sensitive to issues of justice and social equity. There are traces of intolerance and discrimination between religious and privatizing ideas and contrary to quotas between men, religious, non-quota and private schools. New studies that include other universities and periods are needed to deepen knowledge about students' political conceptions.