A bonificação regional na Universidade Federal do Maranhão no contexto das ações afirmativas

Abstract

This work is located in the Research Line in History, Educational Policies, Work and Human Training, of the Postgraduate Program in Education of the Master's Degree at the Federal University of Maranhão – PPGE/UFMA and its main objective is to analyze how the regional bonus is configured within the perspective of affirmative action, in the UFMA medical course on the São Luís, Pinheiro and Imperatriz campuses. From the perspective of understanding the regional bonus policy as an affirmative action and how this process has been happening at UFMA, this study aims to problematize how it is configured, who the beneficiaries are based on a reading focusing on the social and symbolic dimension of the process of access to this policy in the medical course and as specific objectives: a) understand the conception and legal frameworks of the affirmative action policy in the context of higher education; b) understand the affirmative action policies within the scope of UFMA; identify the concept of bonus contemplated in the normative legal instruments that legitimize the implementation of the regional bonus policy at UFMA c) investigate the socioeconomic and cultural profile of students entering the medical courses in Pinheiro, Imperatriz and São Luís from 2017 to 2021; d) analyze the implications of the regional bonus policy at UFMA for the entry of socially excluded, marginalized groups and those in situations of socioeconomic vulnerability. For this purpose, bibliographic and documentary research was adopted, through the contributions of Lakatos and Marconi (2003) and Flick (2004). As a theoretical contribution we use Carvalho (2013), Dias Sobrinho (2011), Claudio Nogueira and Maria Nogueira (2015) and Monteiro (2018), among others, with emphasis on the theoretical discussions of Bourdieu (1996, 1998, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021) about economic, social and cultural capital. To understand the itinerary of affirmative actions and regional bonuses at UFMA, official documents are used, citing Law 12,711/2012, updated by Law 14,723/2023, the Resolutions of the UFMA Teaching, Research, Extension and Innovation Council, no. 499/2006, no 501/2006, no 1653/2017, among others, Administrative Process no 9179/2017, reports from the Integrated Academic Activities Management System with indicators of new entrants based on the new Resolution no 2648/2022 which provides for the regional inclusion criteria, reports from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and data from the Ministry of Education. According to the data presented, through the course of affirmative actions at UFMA, we can point out that the institutional regional bonus policy needs a reassessment in its direction, since more than 97% of those entering the medical course are graduates from private schools in Maranhão. Although the bonus considers the regionality criterion, its application fails to meet the objective of effective affirmative action. This is because students who benefit from this policy and are able to enroll in high-demand courses, such as medicine, already have significant economic and social capital, which gives them greater access to privileged social fields.