The rector of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, said, in an interview, given on January 11th, at the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (Alesp), that the advancement of student inclusion and retention policies as well as participation in processes aiming to improve secondary education are among the priorities of state public universities.
Meirelles emphasizes the importance of the University contributing to the process of improving public education in the State. “This is a challenge that we, at Unicamp, have as a priority today and, I am sure, it is shared with USP [University of São Paulo] and Unesp [Universidade Estadual Paulista]”, stated the rector, to the Alesp Podcast.
Participation in this process, according to the rector, will take place mainly through Provão Paulista – a new modality of access to the State's public universities, which benefits students from the state's public education network and came into force last year. For the rector, Provão Paulista brings Unicamp – and other state public universities – closer to a universe of 1,2 million students currently enrolled in pre-university education, in addition to a contingent of at least 120 thousand male and female students at schools of technical education.
“We have a strong aspiration to strengthen our ties with the State community.” Meirelles claims that the test represents a significant way of achieving this objective, in addition to playing a crucial role in improving teaching. The rector also recalled that the program responsible for establishing Provão Paulista is accompanied by two other important affirmative actions: a scholarship program – which can directly benefit needy students – and the incentive for more active participation in university degree courses. next to high school.
Replacement of vacancies
Professor Meirelles emphasized Alesp's role in this context. According to the dean, the legislation currently in force prevents the replacement of vacancies for professors hired before the first semester of 1985. Vacancies are eliminated when these professors retire. As a result, at least 200 teaching positions were closed and cannot be filled by new teachers. “Today, Unicamp would need at least 2 teachers, but it has around 1.800, precisely because of this restriction.” Therefore, it is necessary for Alesp to approve the increase in the maximum number of employees that Unicamp can hire, concluded the dean.
“Our teaching staff is in the process of being reduced,” stated Meirelles, appealing to deputies to change the current rule. “We submitted a request for expansion to the state government, but with the intention only of returning to Unicamp’s original structure,” he explained.
According to the rector, the process has already gone through the State Attorney General's Office and is now at the Civil House. One of the next steps is for the government to send the proposal to Alesp. “And then, we will really need deputies to help us make up for this shortage”, he argued. “We want to make it clear that the change will not mean an increase in costs, as the funding will come from the University’s own budget,” he said.
Tax reform
In the interview, the dean also spoke about the tax reform approved by Congress at the end of last year. Meirelles said there is a permanent concern about possible changes resulting from the new tax system in the funding of state public universities. “We want the financing system to be maintained, but we proposed some changes,” he said.
According to the dean of Unicamp, the Council of Rectors of São Paulo State Universities (Cruesp) suggests that funding follows the model adopted for Fapesp (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation), which has been provided for by law since the 1960s. Financing of universities, in turn, is done through a decree reissued every year by the State government. Cruesp also suggests that the funding should be sourced from the State's entire tax base. Today, the calculation of this amount is based solely on the collection of ICMS (Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services).
See the full interview
Also watch the interview given by rector Antonio Meirelles for the Conexão Paulista channel, on January 17th
