Avaliação do programa ciência sem fronteiras: uma análise a partir do ENADE 2017 para os cursos de engenharia

Abstract

This paper aims to measure the effect of ‘Science Without Borders’ (CSF) on the academic training of undergraduate students in engineering from the microdata of the National Student Performance Examination (ENADE) for 2017. The methodology used was the Method of Potential Results through Ordinary Least Squares for the comparison of CsF alumni to a control group comprised of those who did not participate in any extracurricular activities abroad, in addition, descriptive statistics are aggregated to the discussion. In this way, it analyzes the mark in the exam as a proxy for performance and the degree of perception of the student about the difficulty of the test as confidence about the content. The ENADE 2017 had 537,436 students enrolled, among them, 151,298 of the Engineering courses, the largest area added to the CsF. The results allowed to identify that the beneficiaries by the CsF present positive correlation with the mark in the exam and have less difficulty in solving the test. However, the results should be analyzed with caution, since the models may overestimate what is added by the Program, because according to the eligibility criteria, students need a cut grade to participate in the CsF, that is, can infer a self-selection bias. To mitigate this possible case, the number of hours of study per week during graduation and the number of books read during the exam year are used as a proxy for student effort. However, despite the caveats, the CsF program presents one of the biggest impacts in the grade for all levels of the test, being compared in a similar way to the effect of studying in a public university and having a high income.