Established in 2019, the Unicamp Partners program has just signed a new agreement. Signed between the University and the company Uliving Student Housing Campinas, the document provides for the transfer of housing spaces for undergraduate students classified as in a situation of socioeconomic vulnerability, these vacancies exist in a real estate project launched at the end of last year by the company, in the district of Barão Geraldo.
There will be four years of partnership, with six places offered per year, in the first two years. The number of vacancies will increase to nine in the following two years. It will be up to the Executive Board of Student Support and Permanence (Deape) – which signed the agreement – to select the students to benefit. The agency's technicians will take into account, in the selection, criteria related to socioeconomic vulnerability and academic performance.
Under the agreement, the beneficiary student will pay a fixed fee of R$200,00 per month. The room price for students outside the program is around R$2 per month, according to the company. There are four and six bedroom apartments with private bathrooms and a shared kitchen and living room.
“First we would like to thank Uliving for the partnership. An agreement like this is confirmation of our firm intention to always expand our student inclusion and retention programs”, said the rector of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles. “Unicamp makes, in relative terms, the largest investment in student retention in Brazil,” he added. According to data from As part of the University's Economics and Planning Advisory (Aeplan), the 2024 budget foresees R$144,5 million for investments in student assistance and permanence programs. This means, according to the agency, a value of R$31 million higher than in 2023.
“The people selected will only pay the equivalent of an estimate of a resident's monthly costs for water and electricity bills”, says Cristiano Torezzan, teaching advisor at the Rector's Office. Torezzan believes that this type of partnership is very important for the University.
“Unicamp is very willing and always open to receiving initiatives that help to expand its relationship with society. In addition to the value that the University contributes in budgetary resources, initiatives like these, coming from the private sector, are important to expand the reach of Unicamp's permanence policies”, he added.
Benefits for society
Uliving Student Housing has facilities in the cities of São Paulo (three units), Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Santos. The Campinas unit, however, is the only one to provide this type of agreement with a university, according to the company's CEO, Ewerton Camarano.
Camarano said that the partnership has an important social bias and that this factor was taken into consideration when defining the company's strategic planning. The executive director assesses that the decision to sign the agreement with Unicamp was also a result of the company's intention “to return benefits to society”.
For the CEO, projects of this type are premised on the idea of offering students a better experience within the university. “We design projects so that they can enhance shared spaces. The apartments [dormitories] are, in fact, for rest and study, but what we do is an invitation beyond the apartment. It is about the life that the student will experience in the common areas, in constant interaction with other young people who are going through the same moment”, explains Camarano.
All apartments have the same configuration – bed, desk and bathroom. The common area has a kitchen – stove, microwave, refrigerators, built-in cabinets – and a living room with TV. Certain apartments have a balcony.
The building will have security with monitoring cameras, 24-hour electronic concierge, access control and electronic locks, as well as an exclusive maintenance team. “The only thing the resident will need is bathing suits, bedding and personal items. Everything else will be available to him”, guarantees the company's operations manager, Fernando Sanches.
