Desafios da política de cotas na pós-graduação: um estudo de caso sobre a Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This work aims at identifying the challenges to racial-based affirmative action in graduate programs, taking UFMGas a case. In 2017, UFMGpassed an inclusion policy for blacks, indigenous peoples and peoplewith disabilities. Most of the policy specifications–e.g., percentage of seatsreserved for blacks (between20 and 50%) –were decentralized to the graduate program collegiate bodies, in a bottom-up implementation. In this context, we addressed the following question: what implementation patterns and other factors may compromise the effectiveness of the quotas?We relied on document analysis of public notices for selection processes (which generated a database of offersused in regressions),and on content analysis of 18 interviewswith members of collegiate bodies and other actors. The data reveal that the reservation percentagesare concentrated at the lower-bound value (20%), with practices that may reinforce the horizontal stratification: Humanities programs tend to practice a higher percentage than STEM programs, the latter considered to be of greater prestige. Occupation of reserved places is very low: in 2022, 21.1% in the master’s and 12.6% in the doctorateprograms. The inadequacy of the material and symbolic conditionsnecessary for quota students to stay in graduate schoolhelps to explain this situation