ProUni and capital returns in private higher education institutions: advantages beyond direct profit from public funding

Abstract

The theoretical framework for affirmative action policies converges to a central point: the importance of such policies for students from underrepresented groups due the negative correlation between their social background and their possible access to higher education. In Brazil, one of the most important policies of this kind is the so-called Programa Universidade para Todos. This policy provides fellowships for Low Socioeconomic Status students enrolled in Private Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The purpose of this paper is to verify whether, specifically in Law studies, there is a relation between social disadvantages and academic achievement and if there are returns, in addition to economic profit, for the Private HEI in retaining ProUni students. For such, a linear regression model was created with data from Enade, taking the exam score as the dependent variable, and the independent variables concerning the proportion of ProUni students in the course, the class´ average socioeconomic profile, and the HEI`s faculty profile. The model has confirmed the intuitive relations between the variables of social background and academic performance and identified a positive relationship between the presence of scholarship holders in the courses and the institution´s overall results in the Enade exam. Thus, drawing from the model and the theoretical framework, it has observed that, in Law courses, Private HEI achieve considerably large returns, both in economic capital due to the funding structure of the public policy and in symbolic capital as a result of the positive relation between the presence of ProUni students and the ENADE scores.