Perception of the participants of the XV Helmet Imposition Ceremony (HIC), a rite of passage in Higher Education

Abstract

In the context of Higher Education, there are rites of passage that mark important moments in a student's career. The Helmets Imposition Ceremony emerges as a pedagogical practice to motivate, retain, and identify participants within their engineering programs. This study was conducted to measure the perception of participants in the latest version held at the UTP Regional Center of Veraguas, assessing their opinions on aspects such as the feelings generated, the symbols used, as well as when and who should participate. A Likert-type survey was administered to the 35 participants; the results showed the symbolic effectiveness of the event, its impact on the students involved, and the tendency to include other disciplines that use helmets in their professional practice in the future, in addition to holding the ceremony midway through their degree programs. To this end, studies are expected to be undertaken to measure the benefits of this event in HEIs on a larger scale.