Dificuldade de permanência na Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul: a realidade do estudante pobre e negro na unidade universitária de Dourados

Abstract

Evasion is a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of scholars mainly in relation to its causes and its impacts on higher education. This study sought to gather and analyze the data regarding the university evasion by the racial quota students from the first terms of the undergraduate programs at UEMS – Campus Dourados in 2014. The objective was to emphasize the causes of university evasion by black students, who were admitted through affirmative actions and left the course, in order to point out ways that will give directions to the discussions regarding internal policies, as well as the extension of financial aid to the undergraduate student and learning improvement methodologies in the initial terms of the program, either through leveling, tutoring or customized teaching, aiming the performance of students who entered by the racial quota system. For a more in-depth study, the research was carried out with some of the black students who evaded the program. Among the factors that lead to evasion, it was relevant to observe if there were reports on racially discriminatory practices that led to the evasion of black university students. The UEMS annual evasion rate in the analyzed period corresponds to 35.8% of the general vacancies, which covers the total number of vacancies offered (wide competition, indigenous, black). By way of ingress, the annual evasion rate was around 36.5% in the category of wide competition, 27% in the racial quotas system for the indigenous population and 33.8% in the vacancies reserved for the black population. There were higher evasion rates among the students who were admitted by the institution through the racial quota system for black people when compared to those admitted through wide competition at the University Campi of Cassilândia (37.5%); Dourados (33.8%); Glória de Dourados (100%); Ivinhema (50%); Maracaju (36.3%); and Nova Andradina (54.4%). The results lead us to consider that the determining factors to the decision to evade the program were financial difficulties added to the incompatibility with working hours, lack of affinity with the course and distance between domicile and university. Factors that were not determinative but had an influence on the decision were the absence of affective links with the HEI as well as faculty behavior and discriminatory practices related to the labeling of those racial quota students. Hence it is convenient to suggest the elaboration and execution of pedagogical support programs aiming at students who have been admitted through the racial quota system objectifying their integration with the HEI and better academic performance.