This article reports questions related to the training and jobs of biochemistry graduates from Brazilian universities. It is focussed on academic and career paths and on relations between knowledge and work. The main questions addressed in this study were: what have been the paths since undergraduate education? What were graduates doing before their enrolment in master and doctoral programs? Which were their motivations for this? Where do graduates work now? How do they appraise some aspects of their graduate education? Did the degree enlarge their job opportunities and improve work quality? How much do they earn?

This article reports questions related to the training and jobs of chemistry graduates from Brazilian universities. It is focussed on academic and career paths and on relations between knowledge and work. The main questions addressed in this study were: what have been the paths since undergraduate education? what were graduates doing before their enrolment in master and doctoral programs? Which were their motivations for this? Where do graduates work now? How do they appraise some aspects of their graduate education? Did the degree enlarge their job opportunities and improve work quality? How much do they earn?

O artigo analisa a demanda pelo ensino de graduação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG - na década de 90, considerando os seguintes aspectos: perfil socioeconômico dos candidatos; fatores que influenciaram a demanda e as preferências por áreas e cursos; o papel da oferta dos cursos noturnos sobre a demanda e as diferenças existentes entre os cursos que oferecem, ou não, a habilitação licenciatura. A demanda cresceu exponencialmente a partir de 1995, crescimento este centrado em candidatos da escola pública e pertencentes a famílias de baixo poder aquisitivo. O aumento mais acentuado da procura ocorreu nos cursos de mais baixo prestígio social da área biológica e em todos os de licenciatura. Verificou-se, também, uma nítida seletividade social associada à escolha da carreira: alguns cursos, de elevado prestígio social, para os quais a aprovação exige notas elevadas, são preferidos pelos candidatos da classe média alta, enquanto os pertencentes aos estratos sociais menos favorecidos optam geralmente por outros nos quais a aprovação pode ser alcançada com desempenho mediano. A abertura de cursos noturnos caracteriza-se como um aspecto da democratização do acesso ao ensino superior.

This paper analyzes the demand for undergraduate courses in Federal University of Minas Gerais during the decade of 90, considering the following aspects: candidates' social and economic profile; factors which influenced the student's demand; the existing differences among courses that offer or not teaching licenses. The demand grew exponentially from 1995 on, having this growth been due to public school and lower income classes students' demand. The most pronounced increase in the demand occurred in the courses with lower social prestige of the biological area and in all those that offer teaching licenses. It also showed the presence of a clear social selectivity associated with the career choice: some of the courses, of high social prestige, to which the application test requires higher grades are preferred by the candidates from the high medium classes while the ones who belong to lower social and economic stratum generally choose others for which the approval can be achieved with medium results. The offer of evening courses shows as an aspect of democratic access to the university course.

This paper describes a study about the causes for the dropout of chemistry undergraduate students at UFMG in the nineties. The students' social and economic profile was outlined. It was observed a correlation between family income and academic performance and between failure at the beginning of the course and the dropout, but it seems that family income doesn't affect markedly the dropout. The endogenous and exogenous causes contribute equally for the dropout. The authors suggest that the dropout could be significantly reduced if the endogenous causes such as large classes, inadequate curricula and programmes, poor teaching and the unapproachability on the part of the teachers were faced.