Acesso e a permanência na universidade pública: a experiência da assistência estudantil na Universidade Federal do Pampa

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between the binomial access/stay in higher education is essential to identify the advances and challenges that reflect in facing the expressions of the social issue that involve the daily lives of recipients of this public policy, since providing access does not always guarantee permanence at the university. This course conclusion work aimed to identify how permanence policies at the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa) are implemented to contribute to meeting the demands of students in a situation of socioeconomic vulnerability. The research had an exploratory qualitative nature. Documents from the Student Development Center (NuDE) of the São Borja Campus, the Academic Secretariat and the Pro-Rectory of Student and Community Affairs (PRAEC) at Unipampa were used as sources. Support was also obtained from the national legislation on the subject and additional data were sought by conducting a public opinion survey, available on social networks. The research process, together with the analysis of the results, was guided by the critical dialectical method via content analysis. Although Brazilian legislation indicates access to education as a right for all and a duty of the State, family, and society, in fact it was evident that access alone does not guarantee the permanence of academics, so that many are still the challenges for the university to be really for everyone. The conceptual discussion about access and permanence does not appear in national legislation. Important achievements were materialized as a policy of quotas and other benefits. However, the public opinion survey showed that there is a need for a larger budget, investment in mental health, research on the situation, constant reception, university and municipal structuring, as well as the constant encouragement of academic belonging as a public right.