Federal Universities Budgets – 12/01/2023 – Sou Ciência

Last week we presented on this blog the data prepared by the Sou_Ciência team and made available in Module I of the Science and Technology funding panel, available at: which shows the budgetary restrictions to which Brazilian Federal Universities were subjected since the beginning of the Temer government , and which were greatly worsened during the Bolsonaro government.

The focus of the last week was expenses with infrastructure/permanent material, which suffered a reduction of 87.9% between 2014 and 2022, and expenses with maintenance and operation, which in 2022 registered lower commitment values ​​than those observed in 2010. Continuing analysis, this brief essay aims to show that the budgetary losses imposed by the Bolsonaro government also affected expenditure on civil servants and the student assistance budget, therefore reaching two priority targets of the last government, career public servants and the vulnerable population that insists in seeking higher education as a tool for social mobility.

In a scenario of intense debates about the financing of federal universities, it is imperative to carefully analyze the data to demystify prejudices and understand the real dynamics of investments. A frequently disseminated belief is that personnel costs in higher education institutions grow out of control. However, when shedding light on statistics between 2000 and 2022 (blog post last week), the SoU_Ciência study center came across an intriguing panorama.

Deconstructing the “fallacy” that personnel expenses grow uncontrollably, the data shows that between 2000 and 2019 enrollment in on-site courses at Federal Universities grew by 159.8% and personnel expenses (active and retired) grew by 118%. 5%, that is, the data shows that considering the period observed, Federal Universities reduced their personnel expenses when the calculation considers ‘spending per enrollment’.

In another turn, from 2019 onwards, and consistently, personnel expenses have been reduced. Between 2019 and 2020 the drop was -0.9%; between 2020 and 2021 there was a reduction of -4.9%; and finally, between 2021 and 2022 the retraction was -7.4%. The causes for this phenomenon will be explained in an Analytical Bulletin to be published in 2023 by the SoU_Ciência team, but it is already possible to say that part of the drop is explained by: salary squeeze; non-replacement of frames; freezing of the Equivalent Teacher Bank; elimination of positions that are replaced by outsourced personnel and paid with funding resources; pension reforms and premature deaths of retirees and pensioners, including in the context of Covid-19.

Student Assistance

Data on the student assistance budget highlight the importance of the National Student Assistance Program (PNAES), implemented in 2007 by virtue of Normative Ordinance No. 39/2007 and regulated by Decree No. 7,234/2010. The data shows that between 2008 and 2016 investments in student assistance were increased by 1,077.1%, or 31.52% each year.

Part of the growth in amounts paid in student assistance was motivated by the increase in the number of in-person enrollments, however, it is essential to consider that after the sanction of Law 12,711/2012 (Quota Law), there was a change in the socioeconomic profile of University students Brazilian Federal Governments, as the regulatory framework determined that at least 50% of admission places would be reserved for students who had completed secondary education entirely in public schools, a change that democratized access to higher education in Brazil, allowing the poor and blacks arrived at the Federal University.

According to data published in the Bulletin “Assistance to students in Brazilian public higher education, a necessary policy[i]”, in 2010, shortly after the publication of the Decree that regulated the PNAES, only 0.5% of students at Federal Universities were on a Per Capita Family Income (RPF) statement lower than 0.5 Minimum Wages (SM), while that, in 2021, this extract represented 30.35% of students. If we consider the RPF extract below 1.5 SM, the PNAES target audience until 2023, the evolution is as follows: in 2010, 43.7% of students were in the PNAES target extract, in 2021, this socioeconomic extract represented 75.7% of students at Brazilian Federal Universities.

From 2016 onwards, data shows a reversal of this trend of expansion of PNAES resources. Between 2016 and 2018 there was a reduction of -4.55% in the amounts settled, followed by a strong retraction between 2019 and 2021 (-31.8%) and, despite the growth that occurred in 2022 (+12.6%), the Federal Universities closed the year 2022 with lower amounts than those observed in 2013.

Therefore, it is possible to state that despite the strong growth recorded between 2008 and 2016, due to the cuts observed from 2016 onwards and, considering the change in the socioeconomic profile of students, it is very important to reinforce student assistance policies, otherwise, part of the democratization of access achieved with the sanction of the Quota Law will be lost to school dropout, which continues to push our working students out of higher education.

We close this brief analysis by reiterating our commitment to rigorous methodology and transparency in data presentation. We firmly believe that transforming education into a universal right requires the recognition of the Public University as a collective heritage.

We invite everyone to explore more information in Module I of the Science and Technology funding dashboard, where additional data and complementary analyzes await your critical consideration. Shared understanding is key to shaping the future of education in Brazil.

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