Relação entre rendimento acadêmico, políticas de cotas e assistência estudantil em Campi do interior da Universidade Federal do Ceará

Abstract

This research aimed at verifying the performance of college students following the establishment of these quotas in public federal universities. We focused on newcomer students (2014.1, 2014. 2 and 2015.1) engaged in computer science studies from the Crateús, Quixadá and Russas campi, covering a total of ten undergraduate courses. We assessed the academic performance of individuals allocated into three major groups: students admitted through the quota program, students benefiting from federal assistance programs and non-quota students, i.e., admitted through general admission. Our theoretical framework was organized to explain the concept and establishment of affirmative actions in Brazil and worldwide and their convergence into the national undergraduate education scenario. The research, predominantly descriptive and documentary, conducted statistical analyses to compare the performance of the aforementioned groups. The results indicated that students accepted through general admission showed a higher average of academic performance index (índice de rendimento acadêmico, IRA) when compared to that from quota students, but this difference was not deemed significant. Concerning students benefiting from federal assistance programs, it was found that their averaged IRA was higher than the other groups, but again it was not statistically significant. Therefore, the performance of this group and the others is considered similar.