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The evolution and prevalence of some factors related to perceived stress among university students were estimated. The research, of the retrospective type, was carried out from data collected using text mining techniques, from five databases with informations related to the development of health activities. The summaries of the publications on "stress and university" registered between 2000 and 2017 were collected without regional restrictions in order to conduct a global investigation. The analyzes sought to establish the evolution of the records of perceived stress during the study period, in addition to identify the prevailing factors related to the process. Comparative (Kruskal- Wallis; p? 0.05) and correlation (Spearman and Kendall; p ? 0.1) methods were performed in the statistical computing environment R. The results allowed us to infer that perceived stress has been affecting university students of both genders, with highlight for the feminine gender, being the anxiety, the financial difficulties, the own expectations, the competitiveness and the frustration the most frequent causes of the problem. The results also show that the coping strategies practiced have been more effective among women.