Cotas universitárias: estudo do desempenho acadêmico e dos perfis socioeconômico e racial na UFU

Abstract

Universities have always played a formative role of extreme social relevance. However, new social demands arise requiring a university education that seeks to improve the conditions of access to professional opportunities. Universities are expected to develop integrated projects between teaching, research and extension that better address the areas of greatest social and economic vulnerability. Thus, quotas were created in universities as measures to increase the possibilities of entering higher education for specific social groups. However, the mere promulgation of public policies aimed at university inclusion does not promote an equitable distribution of training opportunities as a way to compensate for social injustices and inequalities, since they do not deal with the effects on academic performance because they do not know their nuances and particularities. In addition, there is a theoretical gap about the academic performance of quota students in the university context. As a way to contribute to the evaluation of the results of the implementation of the educational public policy of reservation of vacancies and still provide subsidies for a better academic management, this work has the objective of analyzing the academic performance of the students of openings of the undergraduate courses of UFU after the implementation of the Quotas Law, and its relationship with the socioeconomic and racial profiles of the new entrants, in order to produce an institutional diagnosis for the period from 2013 to 2017. The research is of the descriptive type and quantitative methods were used for the analysis of secondary data made available by the Pro-Rectory of Graduation. The study was submitted for approval and approved by the Ethics Committee of UFU, receiving CAAE 09285019.5.0000.5152. The data were processed and adjusted for the statistical analysis, using descriptive statistics and the comparison of means to interpret them. The results demonstrated that the methodological bias is a key factor in obtaining the conclusions. The analysis by modalities of admission showed that non-quota students presented higher academic performance in the areas of Agrarian Sciences, Exact and Earth Sciences, Applied Social Sciences, Engineering, Linguistics, Arts and Multidisciplinary Arts. At the same time, the quota students obtained higher performances in the areas of Biological Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Sciences. In group analysis, non-quota students performed better for all Major Areas. It was evidenced the existence of a difference of performance related to race / color, with a great advantage for white students. Brown, black, oriental and indigenous students presented lower performances. Academic performance varies according to gross family income. The best results are related to the higher income brackets, while the lower results are related to the initial income brackets. The students who perform best are those who have more educated parents. The same conclusion was reached in relation to previous school education, since students from private schools obtained the highest academic performances. From this work, a technological product was born, which is the institutional diagnosis, destined to the Graduate Rectorate.