Assistência estudantil e estudantes trabalhadores: uma análise a partir do perfil dos discentes da Faculdade de Serviço Social da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

This Final Course Project aims to analyze the role of student assistance policy in addressing the difficulties faced by working students in their academic journey, considering the challenges imposed by reconciling work and studies in public higher education. It starts from the understanding that working students constitute a significant contingent of the student body in contemporary universities, whose socioeconomic conditions and insertion in the labor market directly impact their permanence and completion of academic training. The research focuses on students from the Social Work school at the Universidade Federal Juiz de Fora (UFJF), seeking to understand to what extent student assistance policy responds to the needs and particularities of this student group. The study is organized into two chapters: the first analyzes the historical construction of higher education in Brazil from the civil-military regime onwards, addressing the university reform, the policies for the expansion of higher education during the Workers' Party governments (2003–2016), the REUNI program, and the formation of the National Student Assistance Policy; The second chapter is dedicated to analyzing the socioeconomic and working conditions of working students at the Social Work school, as well as the actions of the Pró-Reitoria de Assistencia Estudantil (PROAE) at UFJF. From a methodological point of view, this is a documentary research, based on the analysis of data from the research “Socio-Political, Economic and Cultural Aspects of the Student Profile of the Social Work school at UFJF”, carried out in 2023. The analysis is based on a critical theoretical framework of Marxist origin, which makes it possible to understand the socio-historical determinants of higher education and the contradictions present in student assistance policy, highlighting its limits and challenges in addressing the inequalities that permeate the academic trajectory of working students.