A bolsa de estudos universitários em Goiás: privatização do público ou publicização do privado?

Abstract

This is a study of the financial assistance, called the University Grant Program (UGP), given to students at Private Third Level Institutes in 1999, by the Goiás State Government. Theoretically, the UGP is an expression of a social policy adopter in order to respond to a problem, admitted by the State, resulting from certain phenomena: the presence of a real demand for Third Level Education, shortage of places at public institutes and the inaccessibility to private third level Institutes, due to the fees charged. In order to study the UGP, an analysis was made of the participation of a civil body, the Organization of Goiás Volunteers (OVG), which is recognized as an NGO (non-governmental organization). The general aim is to study State involvement in the execution of the program of grants for university studies involving the transfer of public resources to private institutes, especially by means of grants to Law students at the Catholic University of Goiás (UCG). In pursuit of this aim, therefore, the extent of the problem of the inquiry into the consequences of the University Grant Program, especially with regard to the implications for the public/private dichotomy in the educational policies adopted by the Government in the 1993-2003 period is delineated. A qualitative research method is used, involving bibliographical research, analysis of documents and field work, with participative observation and interviews. Its theoretic reference is based on an analysis of the organization of the State, in particular of the neo-liberal policy of Minimum State Involvement, and the General Theory of the State, using, among others, such authors as Gramsci (1989), Bianchetti (1996), Bresser Pereira (1998), Sader (1999), Bobbio (2000), Giddens (2000), Azevedo (2001) and Anderson (2000). The analysis of the public/private relationship is based on the ideas of Faleiros (1987), Baldino (1991), Brzezinski (2000), Vieira (2000), Cunha (2001) and Dourado (2002), among others. With regard to the tertiary sector, studies carried out by Fernandes (1997), Gohn (2000) e Montaño (2002) are predominantly used. So as to achieve this, first of all, the most relevant approaches to the theme are presented, in particular, the liberal, social-democratic and the neo-liberal or post liberal models. Then, the dichotomy between the public and private is discussed, in relation to the history of Third Level Education in Brazil and in Goiás. After that, the analysis of the third sector involvement is presented, especially with regard to the body which managed the program under review. In the final chapter, there is an evaluation of the principal points of the UGP and the implications uncovered by the data collected through participative observation and interviews. By means of the research, it was possible to establish that the tertiary sector, as it presents itself, is useful to the neo-liberal model of Minimum State Involvement as it is a tool for the growing distancing of the State in the execution of social policies. It was seen that, in the University Grant Program, considerable amounts from the State Exchequer are directly transferred, in the form of study grants, to private Third Level Institutes. The students who benefit must render service in public or tertiary sector bodies, but those responsible do not intend that there be an academic return in these obligatory activities, undertaken by students. From the way that the University Grant Program was set up and implemented, it can be concluded that it is based on a privatist logic, which, far from being the fruit of a liberating educational policy, results in predominantly paternalistic practices.