STUDENT ASSISTANCE AND THE MIGRANT STUDENT:

The reality of UFMS, Nova Andradina campus

Abstract

This article is the result of discussions developed within the scope of the Master's degree in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), which seeks to analyze student assistance at UFMS, as a public policy, and its operationalization in meeting the needs of migrant students to remain in higher education, at the Nova Andradina campus (CPNA). The objective of the research, in general, was to analyze how Student Assistance at UFMS/CPNA is structured to serve migrant students, whether they come from other cities or states of the federation, without family ties in the city of Nova Andradina-MS and with little or no financial resources for survival. To this end, we started from historical-dialectical materialism, as a method of analysis, as well as appropriating quantitative and qualitative analyses, based on documentary and bibliographical research, in view of access to the questionnaires that students fill out, either at the time of enrollment in the course or when requesting any student assistance. For the theoretical construction, the context of reduction of social policies as expenses and not public investments was considered, the neoliberal context of reform of the State and education, which views Student Assistance as a loss for the State, but which nevertheless represents a response to meeting the demands of the working class; and the movement of contradictions, how much this policy is fundamental for low-income students, especially migrants, to establish themselves and complete public higher education.