Democratization of access and stay in college education: actions and experiences at federal university of Rio Grande do Norte.

Abstract

Democratizing college education means amplifying access to education to all society members especially for those who were left aside of it. This article aims to understand groundbreaking actions adopted by Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), supporting the democratization in the insertion and permanence of socially disadvantaged students describing the main characteristics of the Programa Complementar de Estudos do Ensino Médio (PROCEEM) and the configurations of some assistance available to students of UFRN. This article regards a qualitative, explorative, bibliographic, documented and field survey whose data have been obtained in affidavits documents and semi structured interviews with project coordinators and some beneficiaries of those policies. The results show that the PROCEEM helps increasing the access opportunities and thus the possibilities of approval of students from public schools, giving them free access to knowledge required for ENEM. In relation to these supporting actions to the permanence of socially disadvantaged students besides reducing the rates of student’s evasion, they bring financial support for the maintenance of the students and they prevent situations that may reduce their academic development in college.

Keywords

• democratização, ensino superior, UFRN.