Eficácia dos programas de assistência estudantil: experiência da UNEMAT

Abstract

The right to education is provided for in the Federal Constitution and regulated by the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education. The understanding that it is the responsibility of the State to guarantee the means for this right to reach all is an important step towards the consolidation of access and permanence in higher education institutions, especially when considering the deep marks of inequality and exclusion in society, especially in our country. Thus, this research has the general objective of investigating the effectiveness of the actions developed by the Student Assistance Policy programs of UNEMAT, Pontes and Lacerda campus, with a view to achieving the objectives of access and permanence. To this end, it proceeded with a theoretical survey regarding public policies for access, expansion and permanence in higher education, as well as presenting the student assistance policy offered by UNEMAT. It is a descriptive-exploratory research, with a qualitative approach, characterized as a case study, documentary and field research, regarding the technical procedures of data collection. The subjects participating in the research are students of undergraduate courses in Law, Letters and Animal Science, beneficiaries of one or more student assistance programs, between the years 2016 to 2018, on the Pontes e Lacerda-MT campus, who are available for participate in the research. The sample is, therefore, non-probabilistic and intentional. The data collection instrument was the online questionnaire, submitted to the Ethics Committee and forwarded to each participant's email. For data analysis, descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative analysis by Minayo (2012) were used, with the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Resolutions of the State University of Mato Grosso as the main research sources, in addition to the research formerly carried out by Araújo (2018). The results showed that student assistance programs serve a low-income public, formed by students from all UNEMAT undergraduate courses. Regarding the scholarships, criticism was noted involving the selection process, lack of supervision and late payment to beneficiaries. It was observed that UNEMAT has been silent on offering students explanatory events regarding student assistance programs. It was also diagnosed that the number of applicants is much higher than the scholarships offered, which compromises the effectiveness of the program. In spite of this, the student assistance programs in question constitute a real opportunity for students of socioeconomic need to have access to higher education, as well as to remain in the desired course.