Fies Social: MEC resumes financing of 100% of courses – 02/16/2024 – Education

The Lula (PT) government made a change to Fies (Student Financing) and stipulated the resumption of financing of 100% of tuition fees for higher education courses in private institutions. Named Fies Social, it is aimed at low-income students.

The changes came in a resolution published in the Official Gazette this Friday (16). The measure had already been announced by the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana.

This is an attempt to boost Fies, which has been streamlined at least since 2015, under the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government, following a lack of control over spending on the program. Last year, the first year of the Lula government, the number of financing was lower than at the end of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government.

There were 50,360 contracts in 2023, compared to 50,914 in 2022.

Young people from families registered with CadÚnico, the federal registry for social programs, and with a per capita family income of up to half the minimum wage are eligible for Fies Social. Half of the vacancies offered in each selection process will have this focus.

There is also provision to reserve places for self-declared black, brown, indigenous and quilombola students and people with disabilities, according to the proportion in the population of the federation unit where the institution is located, according to the latest IBGE census.

The model will be available from the 2nd semester of 2024. Access to financing is done through a specific platform where students use their Enem score to enter. The government announced that more than 100,000 students could benefit, but did not specify the number of places this year.

The Lula administration resumes this 100% financing of the course that had been eliminated in 2015. Fies experienced a peak in the number of beneficiaries between 2012 and 2014, when it offered 732 thousand new contracts in the year.

This jump, which represented large profits for educational companies, occurred in an uncontrolled manner, affecting public accounts and generating high default rates.

Since then there have been a series of changes. In practice, the possibility of financing decreased year by year. Even the vacancies announced by the government were not being filled.

Members of the private higher education sector point out that the veto on full financing of the course was the biggest obstacle to filling vacancies and interest in the program.

ABMES (Brazilian Association of Higher Education Supporters) celebrated the decision. “The changes in Fies are in line with what we defend, a more social Fies, which promotes the educational inclusion of the least favored sections of the Brazilian population”, highlights Celso Niskier, the entity’s president director.

There are assessments in the market, however, that full financing could further discourage the payment culture at Fies. The default already affects around 2 million people and the government opened refinancing that represented a large amount of debt forgiveness.

At Fies, the government pays the monthly fees for the institutions and the student is left with the debt to be paid off after the end of the course. Eight out of ten university students are in private institutions.