Student assistance: An assessment of its effectiveness

Abstract

In existence since 2008, the National Student Assistance Program (PNAES) had a budget of around R$ 1 billion in 2019; however, few initiatives have assessed its impacts. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of student assistance programs at the University of Brasília (UnB) from 2010 to 2014, by comparing dropout and retention rates between participating and non-participating students in student assistance programs. The results indicated no difference in the dropout rate between the two groups analyzed. When evaluated in terms of courses, the dropout rate varied inversely proportional to the course’s prestige. The retention of students from student assistance was higher compared to non-participating students in medium and low prestige courses. Student assistance programs have achieved the PNAES objective, reducing the dropout rate and maintaining the student retention within the parameters defined by the Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC). It is noteworthy that, in the case of retention, adjustments are needed so that retention is the same for all UnB students, especially in medium and low prestige courses.