Access to higher education and students' phenomenological experiences [Ingreso a la educación superior y experiencias fenomenológicas de los estudiantes]

Abstract

Entering higher education is often a complex experience involving academic and personal changes. The purpose of this study is to reveal the phenomenological experiences of Colombian students in their process of entering higher education. Through interviews with students from Comuna 8 in Medellín and following Van Manen's methodology, seven ‘motives for living’ were identified: i) desire for social mobility, ii) vocation as a driving force, iii) emotional independence, iv) fear of the unknown, v) existential economic obstacles, vi) perceived academic fragility, vii) desire for emotional support. University admission constitutes an existential transformation that transcends the academic, manifesting itself in four dimensions: i) temporality (horizon of hope and uncertainty), ii) spatiality (territory of adaptation), iii) relationality (need for emotional support), and iv) corporeality (physical manifestations of stress). The university is revealed as an existential territory where family aspirations and processes of identity reconfiguration converge.