The impact of FIES changes on permanence in higher education between 2015 and 2019

Abstract

This research intends to study the impact of normative changes about of FIES on the permanence of students in higher education on Brazil between 2015 and 2019, which is relevant since private education guarantees a considerable participation in higher education, and we must understand the importance and the impacts that the reordering of access to that program. In this paper, we propose the following problem: how did the changes made to the FIES impact higher education student dropout rates from 2015 onwards? In this regard, a first analysis is made of the objectives and goals of the expansion of higher education in the Brazilian National Education Plan for the period under consideration. Afterwards, considering the legislative modifications and the acts of the Executive Branch in Brazil, the normative modifications of the FIES are described. The final section of the report examines the data published by INEP for the period regarding the persistence of students who attended higher education institutions based on FIES. We hypothesize that from 2015 to the present, changes related to the student financing program related to FIES have hampered access to the benefit. This had a direct impact on the dropout rate among higher education students. The approach is deductive and the monographic procedure uses techniques of bibliographical and documentary research.