Coordination of public policies expands schooling for vulnerable students.

Coordination of public policies expands schooling for vulnerable students.

Bolsa Família and university admission and retention initiatives increase chances of success in higher education, says thesis

Bolsa Família and university admission and retention initiatives increase chances of success in higher education, says thesis

At the age of 18, Camila (fictitious name) won a place at a public university. A beneficiary of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF), the student had been encouraged by her mother and her elementary school teachers to enroll in a social sciences course. The young woman, of mixed race and from a low-income family, dedicated herself to her studies and took advantage of affirmative action policies to make her dream come true. As a university student, she took advantage of the retention policies, undertook scientific initiation, participated in student organizations and balanced her studies with work in order to, in addition to staying in university, continue contributing financially to her family and, finally, become the first member of her family to complete higher education. Now a doctoral student, Camila is part of a group of PBF beneficiaries with completed higher education, a group that grew 104% between 2016 and 2022, according to data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad-C) from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Like thousands of other Brazilians, the doctoral student serves as an example of the importance of the interconnection between public policies for income transfer and student access and retention in higher education. Economist Bruna Wargas conducted a doctoral research focusing on the trajectory of undergraduate students from a public university who were beneficiaries of the PBF. Her study covered the path of these students from graduation to entry into the job market – a group that has been little studied and difficult to access for research – and analyzed the role and effects of the articulation of three policies: income transfer, inclusion in higher education and university retention.

“The research shows that the articulation of the educational conditions of Bolsa Família with the policies of access and permanence in higher education contributes to prolonging the educational trajectory of students from socially vulnerable groups”, says the economist, who defended her doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Education (FE) at Unicamp, entitled “Access and permanence in higher education: trajectories of former PBF beneficiaries who graduated from a public university”, under the guidance of Professor Helena Altmann and co-supervision of Professor André Pires.

Personal report

“Without the Bolsa Família, I wouldn’t have been able to dedicate myself to basic education. Without the student aid grants, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my undergraduate degree. Without the grants to promote scientific research, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my master’s degree and be working on my doctorate. For low-income people who want to pursue an academic education, these grants are essential and need to be expanded,” Camila stated in the research questionnaire used by Wargas. “Despite the grants, the cost of living [in the neighborhood where she studied] is high. And I had to send money home to my family.”

The researcher used the form with a group of 286 students who had graduated from a public institution and were part of a database of PBF beneficiaries – all of whom had started in 2008 and were graduating by 2024. The questionnaire contained objective and open-ended questions. In these, the students were able to explain their trajectory, the difficulties they encountered, and their opinion regarding public policies. Of these, 36 responded to the questionnaire. And, in the case of these 36, 47% were the first members of their family to enter higher education.

“The main point is to understand that these graduates probably would not have reached higher education without the support of the public policies they benefited from,” said Wargas. According to the economist, the research shows how this combination of support mechanisms, from basic education to university, contributed to enabling long-term educational trajectories with direct impacts on professional integration and social mobility.

The results of the study are in line with a survey by the Institute of Mobility and Social Development (IMDS), also conducted using data from the PNAD-C, which reveals a numerical increase in the number of university students benefiting from the PBF between 2016 and 2022, from 84 people (0,9% of the total number of PBF beneficiaries aged 18 to 65) to 256 (4,7%). A more recent PNAD-C report, published in June 2025, shows that seven out of ten university students in Brazil attended high school in public schools.

profile change

“There has been a change in the profile of higher education students in the country with the implementation of inclusion policies since the 2000s, such as racial and social quotas, which have enabled access to a portion of Brazilian society that was previously unable to access higher education,” said Wargas, who currently works at the Executive Directorate of Student Support and Retention (Deape) at Unicamp, formerly called the Student Support Service (SAE).

For the economist, the combination of policies shows a path to be followed to reduce inequality in Brazilian society. “That’s the big point,” the economist emphasizes. Inclusion policies in higher education – such as the Student Financing Fund (Fies) and the University for All Program (Prouni) – have changed the way students enter this educational level, both in the public and private sectors. “I myself benefited from one of these policies in 2005. I entered an undergraduate program at a private university through Prouni.”

Social mobility

The research also highlights the importance of continuing and improving these policies, taking into account not only the aspect of education, but also social mobility and the insertion of young people into the job market. “We analyzed the trajectories of the group studied from basic education to professional integration. It is important to highlight an important aspect of cases that achieved postgraduate studies,” said Wargas. One of the questions asked in the questionnaire was how the person saw themselves socioeconomically during their undergraduate studies and how they saw themselves at the time of the answer. Most reported an improvement in their social condition and their insertion into the job market.

“The research shows the success of ongoing public policies to encourage education and transfer income,” says the advisor, who coordinated the SAE between 2017 and 2022. “Financial support mechanisms for higher education, for undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs, have always existed. They just weren’t tied to the issue of income. Scholarships such as those for scientific initiation have always meant incentives for the education of young people who were already in university. Criticism [of financial support mechanisms] appears when these benefits tied to education are allocated to a lower-income population. Behind this moral discourse, in fact, is an attempt to restrict this population’s access to educational benefits that an elite has long enjoyed,” said Altmann. “Education is a right that needs to be guaranteed to everyone.” And, in order for this right to materialize, a segment of the population needs financial support to complete basic education and higher education, she added.

Created in 2003, during the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the PBF stands out for its social scope and effectiveness in reducing food insecurity among the population living in poverty and extreme poverty. Furthermore, the benefit is conditional on school-age children attending classes.