THE QUOTA LAW AS AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY FOR BLACK STUDENTS IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION AT UFOPA
Higher Education in the Amazon. Affirmative Action. Quota Law. Educational Inclusion Policy. Ufopa
Education plays an important role in social transformation in the lives of young Brazilians, especially when these young people come from a lower social class and have no other option for social advancement other than through education. Ufopa has brought hope to many of these young people, since its creation it has brought with it affirmative action policies. In August 2012, Law No. 12,711/2012 was enacted, regulated by Decree No. 7,824/2012, popularly known as the Quota Law, ensuring that 50% of the total number of places offered in federal universities and institutes would be reserved for black, mixed-race, indigenous, low-income students and people with disabilities, who had come entirely from public high schools, in regular courses or in youth and adult education. Understood as a public educational policy of inclusion, the Quota Law has been implemented at the Federal University of Western Pará since its regulation, and after ten years of its implementation, there is an urgent need to study its results, specifically related to black people (black and brown), from access, permanence to completion of undergraduate courses. This work aims to analyze the impacts of the Quota Law on the process of access and completion of black students in undergraduate courses at Ufopa, discussing the effects of the institutional affirmative action policy on the academic life of these students. This is an analytical-descriptive research, which was developed through bibliographic and documentary research, with a qualitative and quantitative approach on secondary data of students, including: Academic Performance Index (API), Suspensions, Dropouts and Failures in curricular components obtained through the students' academic records; The data was provided by the Ufopa Center for Technology and Information and Communication to outline the academic profile of black students who are eligible for quotas, as well as to assess the different profiles of students who are accessing undergraduate courses at Ufopa. The main results of the Quota policy are related to the significant impacts it has had on the lives of students in Brazil, especially in terms of social inclusion and access to higher education. Since its implementation, there has been a considerable increase in the presence of students from historically marginalized groups, such as blacks, indigenous people, low-income people, people with disabilities and those from public schools, in universities.