O Programa Universidade para Todos e a inserção de negros na educação superior : a experiência de duas Instituições de Educação Superior de Mato Grosso do Sul - 2005 - 2008

Abstract

In this Doctoral Thesis the implantation of the University for All Program (ProUni) has been analyzed for the period of 2005 2008 and the insertion of Negroes into higher learning, bringing out this implementation in two Institutes for Higher Learning localized in Campo Grande, South Mato Grosso. ProUni is a public policy elaborated in the context of the reform of higher learning during the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that envisions the democratization of access to this level of learning, by conceding scholarships for partial or fulltime studies. The fundamental presupposition that sustained this Thesis is the following: although ProUni is a policy focused and elaborated within the neoliberal context, it can represent a strategy of access and permanence for young Negroes into higher learning. On explaining and understanding the aim of the research, as well as its guiding theme, three questions came up during this process. Is ProUni one of the conquests of the Negro Social Movements for the implementation of policies of affirmative action or merely a strategy for the transfer of public resources to the private sector via fiscal exemption? Does the insertion of Negroes into higher learning by way of racial quotas sharpen the debate on racial bias or question the ideology of the racial democracy myth in Brazilian society? Do the Programs of promotion of racial equality represent conquests for the Negro population or appear as a centralized and newly signified policy by the convergent antagonism between the Negro Social Movement and the government, which process was initiated during the presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso? In this perspective, the objectives of this investigation consist of: a) analyze the implantation of the University for All Program (ProUni) in the context of higher learning in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeking to identify its significance as a policy for democratization which envisions the insertion of negroes into higher learning; b) investigate the significance of ProUni for the scholarship students, specially in what refers to their permanence in university courses; c) investigate the perception of the scholarship students of ProUni, as to the policies of affirmative action, the quota policies, racial discrimination and racial bias. The Thesis presents the struggle of the Negro Social Movements for the implantation of public policies for the promotion of racial equality, in the context of the historical reconfiguration of the role of the Brazilian State. It shows the theoretical debate and the contradictions on the policies of affirmative action, the system of quotas and ProUni. The research was carried out with the application of socioeconomic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with thirty-one Negro students, studying at night, in the Law and Pedagogy courses of the two Institutions of Higher Learning in Campo Grande MS. The classification and analysis of the legislation that oriented and normalized the implantation of ProUni on a national scale was carried out along with the bibliographical research, which makes up the theoretical basis for the realization of this Thesis. The conclusion points out that the problems relative to racial inequalities and the access of young negroes to higher learning in Brazil will certainly not be solved by the intermediation of ProUni and focalized policies, and can be gradually withdrawn at the same rate as policies of a universalist character are able to guarantee for all Brazilians, the right to citizenship and a dignified life, independently of the color of their skin.