ADMISSION

Table 1 shows the number of enrollment slots for regular (in site) programs available at each university, divided in regular competition and affirmative action. The slots for affirmative actions were organized based on Law no. 12,711 / 2012 (BRASIL, 2012):

Table 1 shows the percentage of slots allocated to affirmative action policies for 2014 at each institution, as well as the selection method used by each of them.

According to data, 11 of the 19 universities were already allocating half of the enrollment slots to affirmative actions in the period, anticipating in two years the mandatory requirement provided by Law⁴. In addition, on average, the federal universities in the Southeast region allocated 41% of slots exclusively for affirmative action students. This is a significant fact. In a recent survey, using a cross-reference survey with microdata produced by the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (Inep), Daflon, Feres Júnior and ^{Campos (2013}) showed that by 2012 the Southeast Region had the coutry’s lowest percentage (on average, 18.3%) of enrollment slots allocated for the affirmative action policies. The researchers used data from universities all state and federal universities in Brazil.

The 41% presented here refers only federal university slots. Still, the percentage found in by Daflon, Feres Júnior and ^{Campos (2013}) is likely to increase if data are updated, as the mandatory allocation determined by law since 2012 led several federal universities to add affirmative action policies to their admission process. In the same research, Daflon, Feres Júnior and Campos (2013) showed that the state and federal universities in the Southeast region combined had the lowest racial inclusion rate in the country. This rate was calculated considering the proportion of enrollment slots offered through racial quotas and the proportion of self-declared black individuals in the region according to IBGE data. In the study of Daflon and his colleagues, the rate for the Southeast region was 0.12. According to the researchers, on average, state and federal universities combined had only 5 percent of the slots for self-declared black students.

According to data in Table 1, for 2014, approximately 21% of the slots were allocated for self-declared black students (sum of slots in columns L2 and L4). Therefore, the racial inclusion rate for federal universities is 0.49, since 42.3% of the population in the Southeast region were self-declared blacks in the 2010 Demographic Census (IBGE, 2013). This is a significant development in terms of racial inclusion in the university. Of course this rate⁵ should be closer to 1 so that black students ceased to be underrepresented in higher education. Even so, data show that the implementation of the Law of Quotas represented an important step concerning the issue of racial inclusion in federal universities in the country’s Southeast region.

Table 1 also shows the forms of selection adopted by federal universities in the region. All of them used the Ministry of Education’s Unified Selection System (SISU) as the main form of selection. However, some have also adopted additional selection models, such as the mixed process, which is comprised of the score in the National High School Exam (Enem) and the score in the traditional admission test combined. Such was the case with the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Another model of differential selection was the so-called serial access, conducted by the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), Federal University of Vale do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri (UFVJM) and Federal University of São João del Rei. In this type of admission process, the student takes three tests during high school, one in each school year. The final score in the admission process is formed by the sum of these three tests, and the last, corresponding to the third year of high school, is usually the Enem score. It should be noted that the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) was the only institution in this region that had a specific selection process for indigenous students and refugees in Brazil. Finally, the Fluminense Federal University (UFF), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio) also allocated slots for public education teachers in their admission process.

POST-ADMISSION SUPPORT

We organized data on the post-admission support category with the purpose of identifying institutional actions that could contribute to the permanence of affirmative action students in college with regard to financial and pedagogical factors. By examining documents, we were able to identify the institutions that were concerned with this issue. In this category, we sought to identify which sectors were dealing with affirmative action policies in the university and which ones had been created specifically for this purpose. In addition, we examined official documents from the dean’s offices for undergraduate affairs in search of institutional programs and projects concerned with the pedagogical development of undergraduate students. Initially, we identified general scope actions for student guidance regarding study habits, academic development, tutorials, pedagogical workshops, etc. Then we investigated actions directed to mathematics-related subjects only.

It is worth noting that some universities showed concern in this respect in their official documents, but no information was found on actions actually taken. Possibly, such actions exist but have not yet been displayed on the websites or they have been carried out by teachers or departments isolatedly. However, institutions whose concerns were only in official documents were not considered in this investigation. The pedagogical programs and actions we identified do not distinguish their use by affirmative action students or others. Nevertheless, it is important to reflect on such actions, since research has shown that this type of institutional support can positively contribute to the permanence of traditionally underrepresented students in university (^{FOLTZ; GANNON; KIRSCHMANN, 2014}; ^{HASKINS; KIRK-SANCHEZ, 2006}; ^{SWAIL; REDD; PERNA, 2005}). Also for this category we sought to identify how universities deal with financial support to their students. Such support is provided considering students socio-economic conditions, except for a few cases where it is provided specifically for affirmative action students. These facts have been organized and summarized in Chart 1.

The first point worth noting is that only five of the analyzed universities had offices, divisions or coordination bodies specially dedicated to questions related to affirmative action policies. In the state of Minas Gerais, the Federal University of São João del Rei (UFSJ) established the Division of Assistance and Affirmative Actions, linked to the Dean’s Office for Student Affairs (Proae). According to Resolution No. 44, of October 22, 2012, this office manages programs and projects for student assistance, affirmative actions, permanence, health, as well as sports, cultural and social activities (UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SÃO JOÃO DEL REI, 2012). Therefore, the Division of Assistance and Affirmative Action is entirely dedicated to assisting students at the institution, as well as managing affirmative action policies.

In São Paulo, three universities have an equivalent sector: the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), and the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). At the UFABC, these issues are dealt with by the Dean’s Office for Community Affairs and Affirmative Policies (Proap). According to this university’s Resolution Consuni No. 50, of December 2010, the office is in charge of formulating, proposing, evaluating and conducting affirmative policies and other actions concerning community affairs at the university. Among the office’s roles, the resolution emphasizes “to develop actions to mitigate the effects of socioeconomic inequalities and ethnic-racial discrimination on the conditions of access and permanence of UFABC students” (UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO ABC, 2010, p. 1).

At UFSCar, the department with this attribution is the General Division for Affirmative Actions, Diversity and Equity, formed by three coordination bodies: Ethnic-racial Relations; Inclusion and Human Rights; and Diversity and Gender. According to information from the institution’s website, this coordinating bodies are responsible for promoting policies, reflections and specific actions in their respective areas, as well as fighting prejudice, intolerance, and violence in the UFSCar’s campuses. In addition, they seek to strengthen actions for the permanence of economically disadvantaged students in the university through material support and guidance for students’ development and academic-pedagogical improvement.

At Unifesp, the sector responsible for affirmative action policies is the Coordination for Affirmative Actions and Permanence Policies, one of the several coordination bodies that make up the Dean’s Office for Student Affairs. Some of its responsibilities are:

The Dean’s Office for Community Affairs and Affirmative Policies at Unifesp is responsible for the division of financial support for students with special socio-economic needs. According to the office’s regulations, its attributions include establishing an interface with the other offices with a view to academic excellence by designing policies to support students, planning the budget for subsequent years, promoting policies and programs to support student permanence, such as housing, transport, food, health, sports and leisure programs, as well as pedagogical and social support policies for students, including monitoring and improvement measures concerning Unifesp’s permanence policies and affirmative actions.

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) also has an exclusive sector to deal with affirmative action policies, called the Division of Inclusion, Accessibility and Community Affairs, linked to the General Superintendence of Student Policies. According to information from the UFRJ’s website, this division seeks to design guidelines and propose and monitor actions to ensure conditions of access, permanence and graduation for students, faculty and university staff, incorporating class, gender, ethnic and sexual orientation dimensions, as well as regional issues such as traditional communities, imprisoned persons and other historically discriminated groups. Within this division is a section that deals exclusively with social inclusion, the Social Inclusion and Education Section. According to information from the UFRJ’s website, this section seeks, in addition to other activities, to promote the training of inclusion-sensitive human resources, to provide guidance for centers and units on subjects related to inclusion and accessibility, and to promote the production and dissemination of scientific, technological and cultural knowledge in the areas of inclusion and accessibility.

In conclusion, the documentary analysis showed that nearly all analyzed universities were concerned with affirmative policies as shown by the specific sectors of UFSJ, UFABC, UFSCar, Unifesp, and UFRJ. However, such issues were dealt with by broader sectors usually dedicated to student and community affairs. The differential about the universities highlighted above is that the peculiarities of affirmative action policies are addressed in a particular way by a specific section, which facilitates reporting on and evaluating these policies since they have staff exclusively dedicated to these issues.

Secondly, the analysis of documentary data show that all universities in the Southeast region have financial assistance policies for socioeconomically vulnerable students. This is a social achievement in Brazilian public universities (^{VASCONCELOS, 2010}). For example, in 2013, according to the management report by the UFRJ’s General Superintendence of Student Policies, over 30 million reais were spent in student transportation, housing and permanence (UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2013). In addition, data from this stage of the study also show that only four universities had a specific treatment of racial assistance - Unifesp, UFABC, UFSCar, and UFRJ - which consisted in providing, through an agreement with the Ministry of Education (MEC), the so-called “permanence scholarship”, a monthly grant of R$ 400.00 for students with a per capita income of less than 1.5 minimum wage enrolled in undergraduate programs with an average of five hours per day. This aid prioritized indigenous and quilombola students, regardless of the number of hours in their programs. This scholarship can be added to other forms of financial support such as the amounts provided in undergraduate research guidance programs. We believe that the other federal universities analyzed also provided such financial support or were working to implement them. However, no information was found in their websites or in the official documents at the time of data collection.

In addition to the permanence scholarship, the UFABC provides a financial support called “inclusion monitoring and affirmative action”, which consists in a scholarship of R$ 400,00 for students who dedicate ten hours a week to monitoring peers with physical disabilities. These students must also participate in teaching, research or outreach projects in the areas of education, culture, ecology, sustainability and affirmative actions. According to Proap’s notice of selection of scholarship holders for 2014, one of the criteria was that the applicant should preferably have been admitted into the institution through public school, ethnic-racial or socioeconomic quota (UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO ABC, 2014). The UFABC awarded 35 of these scholarships that year. In addition, the UFABC provides an “accessibility aid” of R$ 400.00 for students with special educational needs. In 2014, 17 students received this financial assistance.

A third point worth stressing from the documentary analysis is that more than half of the universities show some form of pedagogical concern with the academic development of their students. In some cases, it was not possible to identify the action taken by the university as some of them only discussed possibilities based on their own charters, with the purpose of encouraging the establishment of programs with these goals through their institutes and departments. As mentioned earlier, these institutions were not included in Chart 1. The target audience of their actions was the student community in general, without distinction between affirmative action students and their peers. However, as pointed out earlier, these institutional practices usually affect positively the permanence of students from underrepresented groups in the university, hence their inclusion in this text.

PEDAGOGICAL PERMANENCE PROGRAMS

Data for this category were organized in Chart 2, which summarizes the main pedagogical programs found in the universities’ official documents and websites. It should be noted that, during our documentary research, actions such as the well-known “academic monitoring” were found in the official documents of all institutions. However, only broader proposals involving pedagogical programs or projects were highlighted.

The analysis of the documents revealed that six institutions developed some form of program in mathematics or some pedagogical action: Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Federal University of Espírito Santo (Ufes), Federal University of ABC (UFABC), Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio). In UFV, the action is part of the Basic Sciences Tutoring Program, in which faculty and monitors study mathematics content with students showing difficulties in the initial subjects of exact sciences courses, such as Differential and Integral Calculus, or with students who failed to reach the minimum score in mathematics in the university’s admission exam.

Ufes, Unirio and UFRJ have a similar action, except that they do not use admission exam scores. At the UFRJ, the project is developed by the mathematics department. At the UFABC, the University Introduction Course (CIU) includes activities in which teachers develop mathematics contents that are prerequisites for undergraduate programs and where the treatment of mathematics in higher education is discussed. Finally, at the UFSCar, there are several courses linked to the so-called “Curricular Activities for the Integration of Teaching, Research and Outreach” (Aciep) which address mathematical contents that are relevant to STEM programs. Aciep activities are provided through departments and are usually open also to secondary education mathematics teachers. It is worth noting that there may have been other programs or projects focused on mathematics at the analyzed universities, since many faculty at these institutions reported, via email, that they develop isolated actions, without registering them with some specific sector, which ends up “hiding” them from university statistics.

Finally, the last point worth mentioning from data analysis was that eight universities developed calls for undergraduate research projects exclusively for affirmative action students. Likewise, we believe that other institutions also provide such programs as they are usually funded by State Research Foundations or by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. However, information about these calls for projects was not found for other universities. It is worth noting that we could not identify the faculty involved in these scientific programs due the lack of information in the institutions’ charters.