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Higher Education. Student assistance. Permanency.
This dissertation aims to analyze the actions of the National Program of Student Assistance (PNAES) and its configuration at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, as a reference it was used the policy of distribution of housing, transport and food granted to the graduation students, Campus-Natal (2010-2019), placing it in the context of the current social policies. As an epistemological matrix it adopted Historical-Dialectical Materialism, including the following categories of analysis: contradiction, mediation and totality. The methodological procedures used were the literature review; documental analysis: as the management reports of UFRN (2007-2019), PNAES budget bulletins from UFRN, UFRN's Institutional Development Plan (PDI), Results Consolidation Reports of PNAES Management, Normative nº 39 of December 12th of 2007, and the Decree nº 7234 of July 19th of 2010, among others; were also used the data analysis of the National Institute of Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira - INEP and UFRN's open data portal. It is concluded that the PNAES defined assistance procedures focused on prevailing the viability of equal opportunities, with the purpose of improving academic performance and developing preventive actions against repetition and evasion. However, some social economical and political conditions affected the development of its functions. Higher Education Institutions (IES) presented difficulties and failures in their role of planning, implementing and executing the program, student participation was little present and there were budget cuts, among others. The results of the analyzes the actions of the PNAES allow us to affirm that food, transport and housing aid, despite their compensatory nature, are essential to grant basic conditions of permanence to students in a situation of socioeconomic vulnerability. However, the public of PANES requires a policy with legal safety that defines by the Law an adequate budget basis so the IES can expand their attendance and not be submissive to the economical and political moment and to the government interests.