A assistência estudantil na educação superior: contribuições e limites relativos à conclusão de curso do estudante bolsista da UFU

Abstract

This doctoral research is linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education of the Higher Education College of the Federal University of Uberlândia, in the “State, Policy and Management of Education” Line Research, and it is part of the theme of policies for higher education. It aimed to analyze the perceptions of managers, technicians and students in relation to the contribution of student assistance to the conclusion of the graduation of scholarship students, and it has the following specific objectives: theoretically discuss this policy in higher education in Brazil, its expansion from 2007 on, contextualizing the social function of the university and the clashes within the neoliberal context; historically contextualize the Student Assistance policy in Brazil, identifying the most sought programs, projects and actions developed at UFU; and also to analyze the contributions and limits of the UFU Student Assistance program for the permanence and completion of the scholarship students' course, according to the view of managers, technical staff and students linked to the AE. The research is of a qualitative nature in the perspective of a critical dialectic vision. The theoretical references are based on the areas of Education, Social Work and Social Sciences and the main authors that gave support to the study are: Sguissardi (2014; 2015); Netto (1999; 2007); Cunha (1986); Dias Sobrinho (2010); Kosik (2002), among others. It can also be considered a research with bibliographic, documentary and empirical designs. Concerning public policies, the main documents used were: Law 13.005/2014; Decree n.º 6096/2007; Decree n.º 7234/2010; the 2011, 2016 and 2019 Fonaprace Reports; the PIDEs/Management Reports/UFU and Resolution CONSUN/UFU n.º 15/2009 as the institutional documents researched. For the empirical research, semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers and technical staff and students linked to the Student Assistance program answered questionnaires. The results of this investigation indicate that public policies related to the permanence of students supported by the Student Assistance program have a fundamental importance for them to remain and complete Higher Education; however, they are not enough by themselves and it is necessary to consider the implementation of a set of actions, given that academic success depends on multiple factors, and the materialization of Student Assistance actions did not reach universality, within the perspective of serving everyone who needs it.