Políticas públicas de acesso à educação superior: o Sistema de Seleção Unificada na Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (2010-2019)

Abstract

The present research is part of the line of research State, Policies and Education Management of the Graduate Program in Education under the Faculty of Education at the Federal University of Uberlândia (PPGED/FACED/UFU). The objective of the research is to analyze the policies for expansion and access to higher education in Brazil and the implementation process and effects of the Unified Selection System (Sisu), especially at UFU, between 2010 and 2019. A qualitative investigation was deployed with analyzes based on dialectical historical materialism. The procedures were bibliographic review, documentational analysis and interviews, guided by semi-structured questions with the Dean of Graduation, the Director of Teaching and the Director of Administration and Academic Control at UFU for being directly linked to the problem. In the theoretical framework, the contributions of Barros (2014), Cunha (2003,2004), Dourado (2010), Mancebo (2015, 2017), Oliveira (2018), Ristoff (2008, 2014), Saviani (2010), Severino (2009), Sguissard (2006, 2015), among others. Higher education was discussed in the light of LDB 9394/96, PNE 2001 and 2014 and PDE. The policies discussed were Fies, Prouni, UAB, Reuni, the Quota Law, Enem and Sisu. It was found that, despite limitations, the policies addressed contribute to the expansion and democratization of Brazilian higher education are initiatives to increase the entry of the low-income population and the discriminated segments. However, the expansion of vacancies did not provide, in the same proportion, the guarantee of conditions of permanence, since it was verified an existing imbalance between access and the latter, as governmental initiatives in the last years have been concentrated solely on access to Higher Education. The research reveals that UFU started joining Sisu on an experimental basis to fill in vacancies not fulfilled in the second semesters of 2010. Although the system was later consolidated as a form of admission for the first semester, the university chose to maintain its own entrance exam for the second semester while believing in the effectiveness of the selection of candidates with regional profiles, since Sisu is a system of national level. Sisu is today the main form of access to UFU and, along with the Quota Law it managed to change the profile of the freshmen but not the profile of the more and less popular. The survey also reveals that the system has increased the evasion, however, this phenomenon can be justified by several factors which are not necessarily and exclusively linked to Sisu.