Psychological Support Services for Higher Education students: The experiences of the Psychopedagogical Intervention Center and the Orientation and Integration Office: confluences and specificities

Abstract

Higher Education has sought to contribute to a training that meets the need to prepare competent professionals, technically and scientifically, and citizens aware of their active, participatory, critical, creative, innovative and transformative role. In this conception, their performance cannot be restricted to curricular time, but must extend to people's lives, in the different contexts in which they participate and for which they are co-responsible. Entering higher education is a milestone in the development of young people, as it involves a significant transition and the confrontation with multiple changes that will have implications for their developmental path. In Portugal, Psychological Support Services have been created with the purpose of favouring, in students, this path and contributing to the resolution of difficulties in the personal, social, academic and vocational domain. Framed in this conceptualization, this paper aims to share the experience of two psychological support services - the Psychopedagogic Intervention Center and the Orientation and Integration Office - reflecting on their specificities and confluences. The continued demand of students, for various reasons, of these services, validates the relevance of their existence in the realities of higher education.