Pós-Graduação e produtivismo: um estudo da qualidade de vida dos estudantes de mestrado e doutorado

Abstract

The challenges of academic life test the perception of students' quality of life and health, especially in stricto sensu Postgraduate Studies. In the postgraduate academic environment, numerous tasks are developed, along with them, there is a high level of demands, which in turn, can generate physical and mental exhaustion, which can trigger illness, as well as the loss of the student's quality of life. In this context, the objective of this study is to identify and analyze the perception of quality of life and health of regular students of stricto sensu Postgraduate studies, master's and doctorate levels at the State University of Western Paraná – Unioeste, Campus de Cascavel/Pr. The research field was made up of 15 Postgraduate programs. This is a mixed (QUALI-quanti), exploratory, descriptive research. In building the theoretical framework, documentary and bibliographical research was developed based on data available on websites and online platforms. The field study consisted of the application of structured questionnaires, developed by the researchers themselves, with open and closed questions, aimed at master's and doctoral students and program professors. In addition, interviews were carried out with program coordinators and representatives of the outpatient clinic and student service center. To analyze the qualitative data, we opted for the content analysis of Bardin (2016) and the data triangulation described by Lakatos and Marconi (2008) and Abdalla (2013). To tabulate the data, the Excel for Windows (2016) program was used and for the statistical analysis of the data, we chose to use the Statistical Package for Social Science for Windows (SPSS) 22.0, Portuguese version. The results of this study highlighted a worrying reality experienced by postgraduate students, characterized by structural challenges, prejudices and significant impacts on mental and emotional health. Issues such as gender discrimination, lack of support for people with disabilities and exclusionary attitudes reveal deficiencies in promoting inclusion and academic ethics. Furthermore, the difficulty in balancing academic life with family and personal responsibilities intensifies the feeling of pressure and inadequacy, generating stress, anxiety and other physical and mental health problems, showing that student illness is not an isolated phenomenon, but the reflection of a set of pressures that intersperse and intensify their consequences. The lack of adequate institutional preparation to deal with mental health issues further aggravates this scenario, imposing barriers to the search for support and increasing student suffering. By inserting this problem within the perspective of global studies, it is observed that illness in postgraduate studies is not a reality exclusive to Brazil, but a phenomenon that affects students in different parts of the world, reflecting systemic patterns of globalized academia, as evidenced in the parallel study of the Sandwich Doctorate Program Abroad.