Políticas para permanência discente: implementação e consolidação na UTFPR câmpus Pato Branco

Abstract

Over the last few decades, higher education has progressively gained prominence, accomplishing ground in the national and international political agenda. In Brazil, it is observed that this level of education undergoes changes of structural nature, ranging from the admission systems to the expansion process, both at the public and the private education sector, democratization of admission practices, permanence policies, evaluation systems and regulation, changes in the profile of the incoming students, among others. Within such scope, this research aims to study the public policies for student permanence available for federal universities and, more specifically, at the locus of this study; the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) Campus Pato Branco. It is through the data collected, linked to such context that the study attempts to answer the question: "How does the implementation and consolidation of policies for student permanence occur at the UTFPR - Campus Pato Branco?” The theoretical path of this study is based upon the contributions of authors such as Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Clarissa Eckert Baeta Neves and Marilia Costa Morosini, highlighting the aspects leading to the understanding of the path of Higher Education in Brazil and of public policies linked to such context. The methodological path followed was permeated by exploratory research, which proved to be extremely relevant. Considering that the field of study undergoes many changes, a careful analysis is necessary to understand the processes involved in it. Initially, the main policies available for student permanence within the federal Higher Education were identified. It is understood by policy of permanence not just those policies that provide financial support, but also that the ones that allow the student to experience greater interaction with the university processes, inclusion in research groups as well as social integration. Therefore, such policies are comprehended in this study as focal and non-focal policies; focal policy is considered the one which among its objectives introduces in an open way the focus on the student permanence and non-focal policy corresponds the one which indirectly fulfill such function. In this work, there has been a choice to seek for further the information about of the permanence policies through interaction with undergraduate program coordinators and students at UTFPR Campus Pato Branco. Seven undergraduate programs have been selected, one for each area of knowledge. Based on the interviews with five out of the seven undergraduate programs coordinators selected, the policies used by each graduation course have been listed, starting from these data to search for information about such policies through the questionnaire with students. To analyze the information collected, principles of content analysis proposed by Bardin have been used. Three categories emerged from the analysis process: financial, technical-scientific academic education and full-time academic education. These categories were identified within the documents analyzed, the interviews with the coordinators and the response of students in to the questionnaires. The result obtained from the analysis allows us to understand that such policies have been well accepted in the perception of the active professionals and students, but there are weaknesses to overcome, and the students’ participation in this changing process is of crucial relevance so that the policies’ effectiveness can be improved. Through analysis, it is also demonstrated that the policies for student permanence are still in the implementation process; they have been designed at the federal level and implemented in Higher Education institutions throughout the country. This process is still recent, considering that most policies available have not been developed for a decade yet, and they still need adjustments, especially regarding to admit the changing character of the students’ needs, which reinforces the importance of the participation in the academic community at all stages of the process, allowing that in the long term such policies become part of the university daily life occupying its rightful place in the structure of Higher Education, then providing room for its consolidation.