Abstract:

When implemented in any educational level, a Tutoring program aims to help students overcome some difficulties that will arise in their school career. One of the difficulties, for example, may be that of adapting to a different teaching from the one you had previously.

In educational institutions, where there is a tendency for the student to give up on the challenges encountered, it is also usual to apply a Tutoring program, in which the so-called Tutor plays a fundamental role. In cases such as these, it is necessary that student follow-up occurs regularly, quickly and efficiently.

Also, sometimes in this type of programs there is the figure of the Mentor who is no more than a tutor who is still a student. the role of a Mentor has the advantage of providing less formal contact with the tutored student so that the message transmitted by the tutor is more quickly understood and assimilated, which facilitates access to knowledge, and that in an overly formal relationship it may be difficult or even prevented.

A tutor is a person involved in information management and other functions. The tutor looks at students' problems and helps, providing assistance faster, more efficiently and more quickly.

In this paper we intend to present a Portuguese case, where a Tutoring program was implemented in higher education at a university in the north of Portugal. The study that we are going to present concerns two courses: Biomedical Engineering and Basic Education courses. Such Tutoring program was implemented in the academic year 2018/2019 with six students in total, being three of each course.

We investigated the perception that these students had of the Tutoring program to which they were subjected. We have tried to realize not only what advantages and disadvantages these students perceived during the Tutoring program, but also what kind of help this program offered them.

A qualitative methodology was adopted, following a case study design and the data collection instruments were questionnaires with seven open questions applied to all students at the end of academic year by the use of the email’s student. We have analyzed the student’s responses with the use of content analysis through the formulation of categories concerning such questions.

Although we had two different courses, the results we obtained from the implementation of this Tutoring program were very similar. There was a great help in their integration, both academically and personally, a great help also in solving problems that were appearing and a great help in the information and clarification necessary for a good understanding of the functioning of a higher education institution.

The role of the tutor was greatly emphasized by the students, being for them a reference and someone with whom they could always count during the school year in question.

Keywords:

Tutoring program, higher education, academic integration.