Initiation rituals in university as lever for group cohesion

Abstract

The 'initiation rituals' of new students in Portuguese Higher Education are viewed as a lever for group cohesion. Using the group dynamics perspective as a theoretical view, this paper reflects on hazing as an initiation ritual that supports and maintains groups by encouraging cognitive, behavioural and emotional processes of social dependency. For the empirical data analysis, a qualitative methodology was chosen, using the students' spontaneous discourses about their academic integration. The results point to the diversity of freshmen perspectives on and experiences of hazing: either rejecting or subscribing, no student seems indifferent to it. Hazing can work as a positive catalyst to the construction of statutory identity. Furthermore, the relationship of submission which underlies these transition rituals is experienced by freshmen as a 'price to pay' for their entrance in the university world.