Avaliação das políticas institucionais voltadas à garantia da permanência dos estudantes do ensino superior da UNEMAT: Campus Alta Floresta

Abstract

The present research aims to identify the effectiveness of Institutional Policies aimed at the permanence of students in undergraduate courses at the UNEMAT University Campus in Alta Floresta, considering the perspective of undergraduate students enrolled at the Campus between 2017 and 2019. Public Policies are programs or actions aimed at ensuring citizenship rights for groups in society or for a specific social segment. In this sense, Student Assistance Policies in Higher Education aim to guarantee access, permanence and completion of graduation, considering social inclusion, improving student performance and quality of life. It is characterized as a research of an applied nature, of an exploratory-descriptive type, with a quantitative approach, with the case study as its collection and analysis procedure. Its documentary source is the current legislation, compared with other studies of the same profile. The first phase of data collection was carried out on documents in the UNEMAT collection, followed by the application of a questionnaire to students. The research universe is 1.130 students enrolled, between the years 2017 and 2019, in undergraduate courses, at the Campus of Alta Floresta of UNEMAT, the locus of the research. The sample is non-probabilistic and for convenience, calculated by the rate of return of the questionnaires sent. The results show that the greatest difficulties for students to remain in graduation are: financial, reconciling work with the course and psychological problems faced by them.Regarding the scholarships and grants available on the Campus, academics believe that the number of scholarships offered, as well as the amount paid to beneficiaries, is not sufficient to meet their needs as students. They claim that there is a lack of publicity and guidance on student assistance programs and that it is necessary to reduce bureaucracy in the selection processes. Among the improvement actions proposed by them, they pointed to the creation of a socioeconomic register, made at the time of enrollment, in order to facilitate the identification of students in vulnerable situations. Other actions would be: implementation of a university restaurant, transportation assistance and full-time psychological assistance to students. In view of the results, it is considered that the student assistance actions existing on the Campus have not been sufficient to meet the existing necessary demand. However, assistance policies have been shown to be effective in seeking to ensure the right to public and quality higher education, promoting equal conditions among students, despite circumstantial weather.