Efeitos da adesão ao SiSU no processo de democratização da Universidade Pública: o caso da UEFS

Abstract

This research addresses the issue of access to Higher Education, based on the main policies used for its expansion in Brazil, such as the construction of universities in the interior, changes in entry forms, such as institutional entrance exams and the Unified Selection System (SiSU), and the implementation of affirmative action policies, such as the vacancy reservation system for historically excluded groups. When investigating these changes, which seek to expand access to Higher Education and democratize it, questions about this topic at the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), the first state university in Bahia and the last institution to join SiSU as a substitute for the entrance exam. Therefore, this evaluative research is a case study that investigates the multiple determinations that led UEFS to choose the System and its general objective is to understand the implications of using SiSU as a selection process for the process of democratizing access to Higher Education in a public HEI in the interior of Bahia. To this end, institutional documents were analyzed that address the UEFS access policy from 2006 (when the reservation of places was implemented) until 2022, as well as the responses to the institutional questionnaire filled out by candidates during the entrance exam (ProSel) and those enrolled from SiSU, establishing a comparison between the student profiles of each selection model, from 2015 to 2022, in order to equate the periods analyzed. The analysis was based on Ball and Bowe's Policy Cycle, which establishes five contexts for the evaluation of public policies and which made it possible to understand the changes in the configuration of the University in relation to the student profile. Thus, the research revealed that, since the use of SiSU in 2019, UEFS has become more regional, with more students from Portal do Sertão, mostly black, with lower income, quota students, coming from the public basic education network, with more enrollments of indigenous and quilombola people and has received more students who intend to combine studies with work. Therefore, there is an increase in the number of working class students entering the institution, which shows progress towards the democratization of access to this institution.