The model will include merit, social justice, equity and diversity, in order to ensure that society as a whole is represented
The Unicamp entrance exam policy from 2019 onwards will not be based on a single criterion. The model will combine principles such as merit, social justice, equity and diversity, in order to ensure that society as a whole is effectively represented at the University. The information comes from Professor Eliana Amaral, Dean of Undergraduate Studies; and Professor José Alves, president of the Working Group (GT) established by the University Council to prepare a proposal in this regard. “There is the possibility that different courses have different compositions of entry criteria. As a hypothesis, a course can allocate 30% of places through system A, 30% through system B and 40% through system C”, infers Eliana Amaral.
According to José Alves, who is also coordinator of the Permanent Commission for Entrance Exams (Comvest), the mission of the GT will be to present a design for an admission policy that includes the maintenance and improvement of the Affirmative Action and Social Inclusion Program (Paais) and of the Higher Interdisciplinary Training Program (PROFis), in addition to the introduction of ethnic-racial quotas. Taking advantage of the Unified Selection System (Sisu) is another point that will be considered. “The GT will also work with a view to ensuring the sustainability of the programs. Society and the internal community must think that, once the quota principle is approved, we also need to ensure student permanence and development. We want to create a well-thought-out, mature and quality inclusion. We need to be clear about how we will finance the development of the measures in the future”, he notes.
The work of the GT will begin on June 20th. The preliminary proposals will be forwarded to the teaching and research units for debate. Afterwards, the matter will return to the GT, which will make the final adjustments and send the document for consideration by the Central Graduation Committee (CCG). The final decision on the admission policy will be made by Consu in November. In the following interview, Eliana Amaral and José Alves talk about the different aspects that will involve discussions on the topic over the next few months, including merit, quality, equity, social justice and advancement of knowledge.
Jornal da Unicamp – How will the Working Group’s activities be conducted?
José Alves – Once the rector indicates the names that will join the GT, we will immediately hold a meeting to define a work calendar. For us, it will be an unprecedented task. I think it is not a question of having a theoretical discussion in relation to the principle of ethnic-racial quotas, since this is already given. We have to reflect on a series of recommendations present in the Consu Resolution, which deal with the quotas themselves, improvements in relation to Paais and also about the way in which we can use Sisu in the model to be built. I think we will have to look for a set of information to support the proposal that will initially be submitted to the Entrance Examination Deliberative Chamber and will then be forwarded to the teaching and research units for a broad discussion. The proposal will then return to the GT, which will make the necessary adjustments. Afterwards, the matter will be discussed at the CCG and finally at the Consu [University Council].
JU – Will Paais and PROFis be maintained?
Eliana Amaral – It is important that people understand that there will be a formula for access to Unicamp, which we still don't know what it will be, and that it will not be based on a single criterion. Several criteria will be used, given that there is already a consensus, and the Consu itself has made it clear, that existing affirmative actions must be maintained. So, the GT will work to formulate a model that allows the use of different access criteria to achieve some objectives, including those that are legally required, such as the University having a rate of 50% of entrants coming from public education. This issue of public education, for example, will deserve reflection. Will students who only completed high school in the public school system or primary and secondary education be considered? This will have to be defined.
PROFis will also be considered, especially because it proved to be a successful experience. The program brought students to Unicamp with profiles that we expected, both in relation to public school graduates, in this case 100%, and in terms of distribution of self-declared black and brown students. In this way, the association of criteria will take into account the good experiences already existing at the University, the corrections of possible flaws in these programs and the introduction of ethnic-racial accounts, which by legislation must follow the diversity of the population, which in the State of São Paulo varies from 35% to 37% black and mixed race, depending on the statistics considered.
JU – Will this index be applied per course and shift?
Eliana Amaral – By course and shift. This is an aspect that is already established by federal legislation. The big “mystery” that will have to be solved by the GT is how to work this in relation to courses with different realities. With Paais, in the current model, Medicine, which is my area of origin, practically reached the rate of 50% of students coming from public schools. And it has also reached the proportion of blacks, mixed race and indigenous people in the first and second years. So, it is important to understand that we are going to make a movement that does not start from zero to 100. What will happen is an improvement of what we already have, obeying the recommendations that include a proportional target of black, brown and indigenous students.
JU – How is the issue of merit in the context of the selection criteria that will be adopted?
Eliana Amaral – Everyone will be selected on merit. Paais and PROFis already promote selection based on merit. The same will also be true for ethnic-racial quotas. What the GT will have to find is the best formula for promoting social inclusion, integrating the mechanisms we already have with the introduction of quotas. This will be done based on studies on the topic, both nationally and internationally, and also based on projections that will be made with the numbers we already have on the profile of candidates seeking our Entrance Exam.
JU – Should Sisu, as professor José Alves mentioned, be considered in the analyzes that will be carried out?
José Alves – Yes, this is expressed in the Consu Deliberation. This is a demand from some teaching and research units. As the proposal will be widely debated in colleges and institutes, the university community will be able to take a position on the matter. Personally, I see advantages in signaling the possibility of attracting students within a larger universe, which is made up of high school graduates from across the country. We are talking about a base of 6 million people, much higher than the number of people registered in our Entrance Exam, which was around 70 thousand candidates in the last competitions.
Eliana Amaral – There is a possibility that different courses have different compositions of entry criteria. As a hypothesis, a course may have 30% of places filled by system A, 30% by system B and 40% by system C. Another may have 70% of places filled by system A and 30% by system B. The way in which Whether this will be done will depend on studies on the public that has sought out our Entrance Exam. It will also depend on projections, for example, on the impacts that adopting Sisu as an admission criterion will bring to the courses. In other words, we will have to look course by course and find formulas that meet their needs, either individually or together.
JU – Does Comvest already have enough data to make these projections?
Jose Alves - Yes, it does. One of Comvest's characteristics over time was the construction of a dense database, which has supported studies and actions of different natures. We have research carried out by professors from Unicamp that investigate topics such as access, retention and career development. Then, Comvest will put its entire team and all its expertise to supply the GT with information that can guide choices and decisions.
JU – Professor Eliana mentioned that the issue of merit will always be considered, regardless of the model to be adopted. Could you explain this better?
Eliana Amaral – Any criteria we use will also be based on merit. The students who will be admitted will always be the best who competed for the specified vacancies. Unicamp has always valued the quality of its activities, including teaching. But the University is also recognized for its ability to innovate. This ability to adapt to new things while maintaining excellence is in the institution’s DNA. We already have extensive experience with affirmative actions. Paais was created in 2004. PROFis, which has proven to be a very efficient inclusion mechanism, dates back to 2011. PROFis students, for example, are often the first generation in their family to attend higher education. These are students who have demonstrated excellent performance.
This, in fact, is a concern expressed by some people, who fear that there may be a loss of quality in the education offered by Unicamp with the advent of ethnic-racial quotas. This does not correspond to reality. Various research shows that diversity in the educational environment makes the learning process advantageous for everyone. Advances occur. Studies developed at Unicamp and other universities also attest that people reached by affirmative actions, when there is associated merit and when the institution provides support for initial adaptation, perform equal or better than their colleagues.
Jose Alves - I would like to complement what Professor Eliana said about the issue of merit, which is an aspect that many people demand. We have to think that merit will prevail because the selection will be made among the best who arrived to compete for the available places. But we also have to think about our vision of merit. The students for whom the quotas will be allocated also completed high school. They have gone through experiences that will eventually be beneficial, but they also have the merit of having reached the stage they are at. What we are saying is that we have a diverse and complex society, and that we have to seek its representation within Unicamp. This means that we must also seek diverse and complex means to attract the best students.
Eliana Amaral - Another concept that needs to be clear is that any selection process for entry into a university or the world of work no longer seeks a single candidate standard. What we are looking for is people’s potential. So, it is not correct to think that an entrance exam or a test is the only way to assess someone's potential for qualified and innovative performance, which is what we look for in a Unicamp student. This is clear, for example, in courses that require, in addition to the exam that determines the candidate's general knowledge, also specific skills tests. Today, selection processes must broaden their vision and take into account the candidate's diverse potential.
In practice, to be clear, we are talking about inclusion based on three or more selection criteria. There is a discussion, for example, of how to identify these potentials through students who win prizes in knowledge olympiads, promoted in high school. Should the University offer some type of bonus to these people? This and other possibilities will be part of the reflections that the GT will make over the next few months.
There is one more point I would like to emphasize. There is a problem of self-exclusion by high school students from public schools. A good public school student does not always feel that they can compete for a place at Unicamp. We are starting to think about how we can better publicize our entrance exam and our teaching to this audience, who may eventually enter the University. PROFis showed this clearly: young people who never thought about studying at Unicamp are now part of our community.
JU – What you are saying is that society is changing, as are its demands. What Unicamp intends to do is respond to these demands in the best way possible, is that it?
Eliana Amaral – Exactly. Unicamp has responded to these demands, but as you said, society is dynamic and always changing. Even though we have done important things, we need to continue doing them, to respond to the needs of the new times.
JU – The text of the Consu Deliberation highlights the need for Unicamp to adopt, along with affirmative actions, a policy that guarantees the permanence and development of students. How will this point be addressed by the GT?
Eliana Amaral – The stay includes a package of actions that the Dean of Undergraduate Studies is responsible for taking care of. It always has been, but now the mechanism will be reinforced because of the changes that will occur. This includes the granting of scholarships, housing assistance, transportation, food, etc. This will force us to review and be careful with our scholarship programs. As we are in a time of financial crisis and these measures will require investment, we will have to assess what the impacts will be in terms of resources, in order to prepare to meet the needs of students in 2019, when the new criteria will be effectively applied.
But not just that. There is something equally important when it comes to permanence, which is offering an environment so that the student feels welcomed and can develop their potential. Reducing prejudices of all types, having maximum equity and promoting collective work are measures that contribute to creating this welcoming environment. These are initiatives that have positive impacts on academic performance. This is also related to the review of curricula and ways of teaching and learning. We need to see how we are going to work with the curricula, particularly in the first two years. This is all part of the general concept of student permanence.
JU – When the proposal goes to the teaching and research units, will the GT participate in the discussions?
José Alves - This is an issue that the GT will have to discuss. Personally, I think that, when invited, GT members should participate in meetings to clarify points that the congregations consider pertinent, in the same way as the previous GT did, which promoted public hearings. The idea is to facilitate the choice of certain benchmarks, so that we can more easily systematize the criteria. The GT will work to present the design of an admission policy at the University, also thinking about guaranteeing the sustainability of the programs. Society and the internal community must think that, once the principle of quotas has been approved, we also need to ensure student permanence and development. We want to create a well-thought-out, mature and quality inclusion. We also need to be clear about how we will finance the development of the measures in the future.
Eliana Amaral - At this stage of discussions in teaching and research units, the GT will have an important role in helping congregations to better understand this or that proposal. We will have to work with objective reports, which make the different communities understand why, hypothetically, the formula proposed for course A is different from the model for course B. The idea is to subsidize the units so that they can make their decisions.
JU – After the approval of the principle of ethnic-racial quotas by Consu, some negative reactions to the decision emerged. Unicamp announced that it will create the Secretariat for Affirmative Actions, Diversity and Equity. How important is this instance to qualify discussions on all these issues addressed by you?
Eliana Amaral - We already have actions that could be brought together in the Secretariat, but we do need to define a clearer policy for the institution itself regarding topics such as diversity and equity. There are similar secretariats in other institutions, which will allow us to interact with them, to take advantage of successful experiences. We live in a time in which not only universities have to deal with these issues. In society in general, there are serious problems regarding discrimination, prejudice and lack of equity. So, understanding these issues more deeply is important for the internal community and also for society in general. I understand that some isolated manifestations do not represent the University's thinking. Unicamp is, in principle, an institution very receptive to the different, the diverse. Reactions other than this, I insist, do not represent the institution's thinking.
JU – In an interview with Jornal da Unicamp, professor Sidney Chalhoub, from IFCH, said that the best universities in the world consider diversity as a prerequisite for quality. Is this how Unicamp understands it too?
José Alves – Exactly. In the Consu session itself, when the principle of quotas was approved, the director of the Faculty of Pharmacy [João Ernesto de Carvalho] spoke about traditional knowledge, which exemplifies the importance of diversity for the construction of systematized knowledge at the University. This plurality will enrich our activities and our coexistence. Student curiosity within the classroom has complex and varied paths. An open University that coexists with different cultures and people will necessarily encourage the emergence of other questions, of other ways of doing science. I think this is a way of ensuring that knowledge does not stagnate.
Eliana Amaral - Any form of diversity and heterogeneity means that we can think about a problem from different perspectives. Within critical and proactive thinking, new doubts arise that must be addressed, both from the point of view of teaching, research and extension. It is possible to discover, based on the history or experience of others, new approaches within scientific practice. This only happens if the group is not homogeneous. Heterogeneity is important because it provides this variation in experiences. Insisting, this qualifies. What we are proposing is not to lose, but to gain quality. It is well established in the literature that diversity is advantageous for the educational environment.
