O Programa Universidade para Todos - Prouni no contexto da reforma universitária (1990-2010)

Abstract

The study approaches the higher education in Brazil, prioritizing the analysis of the Universidade para Todos (“University for All”) Scholarships Program (PROUNI), as well as the opinion of the scholars from the Social Services course regarding this program and the professional in charge of it in an Institution of Higher Education (IES) in the city of Manaus. Its specific objectives are: reveal how the process of creating the program was, verify whether the PROUNI can be considered an instrument of democratization of higher education as its proponents claim, and know the opinion of the scholars from the PROUNI in the Social Services course about the program as well as the professional responsible for it in the Higher Education Institution locus of the research. The PROUNI was established by the Provisory Measure 213 in 2004 and it aims to create conditions for the access of higher education by offering full or partial scholarships in private Higher Education Institutions in exchange for tax exemption. The target audience are students with low income who have completed a high school degree in any public school or private institutions provided with a full scholarship, people with disabilities and teachers of public schools who are getting their degree in basic education, in this case, regardless of their income. The program is included in the list of affirmative action policies for designating a percentage of quotas specifically to people with disabilities and to self-declared as black or indigenous. In order to reach the proposed goal, a bibliographic research was conducted (official documents, provisory measure, project-law) proceeding a technique of document analysis about the process of creation of the PROUNI. A field research was also conducted in a private higher education institution in Manaus, where the questionnaire was applied to the scholars of the third and fourth years of the Social Services course, and an interview was conducted with the professional responsible for the program at the institution. The study showed us that the Universidade para Todos Program - PROUNI, created in the context of the Lula government university reform, meets the recommendations of international organizations such as the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) since it contributes to the process of privatization and commercialization of higher education, diversification of funding source, blurring of boundaries between public and private, and legitimates the process of diversification of teaching that is reduced only in vocational training, consolidating the concept of education as a service not unique to the state. The field research proves that the program meets a legitimate demand of people excluded from access to public higher education. The opinion of 13 of the 14 scholars participating in the survey is that PROUNI democratizes access to higher education, and only one (1) scholar is contrary to this view. This one qualifies the program as a selective program and a government strategy to pacify the struggle over public education. Sharing this same opinion, the professional responsible for the program at the Institution where the survey was conducted, emphasizes that true democratization of higher education will occur with the access of the poor, or minority to public and free university. It is inferred that although the program has helped many people access higher education level, which means that one has his opinion that the program has democratized higher education, it cannot fail to consider that when it forwards a portion of the population to private higher education therefore it contributes to decrease the popular pressure for one of the historic flags that had marked the social movements and today is no longer seen, which is fighting for a qualified and public university, this is arguably the biggest success of this program.