Política de assistência estudantil: verificação da efetividade do PNAES para o combate à evasão universitária na UFOPA

Abstract

The National Student Assistance Plan (Pnaes) was established through Normative Ordinance of the Ministry of Education nº 39/2007. The context in which this plan was created reflects the scenario of expansion and democratization of higher education in Brazil, where there was a significant increase in the number of students in situations of socioeconomic vulnerability. In order to combat social inequalities, the public served by Pnaes are students enrolled in inperson undergraduate courses, coming from public schools or with a per capita family income of up to one and a half minimum wages. Subsequently, Decree No. 7,234/2010 was created, establishing as one of the central objectives of the plan the reduction of retention and dropout rates. From this perspective, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Pnaes in combating university dropouts at the Federal University of Western Pará (Ufopa). To this end, the statistical method of Series Cointegration was used to verify the functional relationship between the planned budget for student assistance actions and the dropout rate, in the period from 2010 to 2022. Based on the results, it was obtained that the Scholarship Permanence was the action with the largest completed budget, with its implementation being a milestone as the beginning of the student assistance policy at Ufopa, followed by scientific initiation and monitoring scholarships, and during the pandemic period, Ufopa prioritized actions that aimed to promote adequate conditions for students to remain on undergraduate courses and participate in remote classes. In relation to evasion, it was noted that there were some peaks in the years in which the academic prescription notices were issued and that during the pandemic the number of students in a situation of withdrawal and cancellation increased. Regarding the profile of Ufopa students, it is agreed that the majority are female, aged up to 24 years old and self-declared mixed race. Furthermore, this study had as theoretical hypotheses the existence of an inverse relationship between Ufopa dropout rates and the execution of student assistance actions carried out with the Pnaes budget. However, it was observed that both series exhibited an increasing trend throughout the specific period and that they are cointegrated, that is, they present a relationship when proven throughout the entire period of the series, although they do not show an immediate adjustment relationship in the short term. . It is important to emphasize that cointegration does not imply a cause and effect relationship between evasion and the execution of student assistance actions at Ufopa.