Distance between quota students and other students is a maximum of 1.2 points, says study

A survey of students at the University of São Paulo showed that the grade of quota holders and that of other students differed by a maximum of 1.2 points.

In addition, the study brought up another important aspect: as graduation comes to an end, this distance tends to be reduced.

The survey followed around 11,000 newcomers to USP since 2018, when the quota program began.

In an interview with CNN the research coordinator and professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences at USP, Marta Arretche, evaluated that the result is “very important” to help, with data, decisions on policies with such impact, such as quotas.

“For the decision on the continuity of the programs and eventual reforms, it is very important that they are based on evidence and this is the role of research”, he said.

Marta said that the students were divided into four groups: those who attended high school in a private school and do not participate in quotas, called non-PPI (blacks, pardos and indigenous), those who studied in a private school and are PPI, those who attended the high school education in public schools and is not PPI and those who studied in public schools and are PPI.

“We monitored their grades during the semester, which allowed us to observe the evolution of these students over time”, he analyzed.

According to the professor, “from the beginning the disparity is not very big, we distribute these groups in the most competitive courses, and in less competitive courses. Among students in less competitive courses, the difference is 0.9 point, and among the most competitive ones, such as medicine and engineering, the difference is 1.2 point and it decreases.”

The researcher also said that the pandemic factor brought an even more accentuated decrease between quota and non-quota students, but, as it is an important external event, it is necessary to be cautious with this data.

Marta said that the distance of notes is based on a “central median”, and that there is a lot of variation in the quotas. “There is an issue that needs to be taken into account, students perform lower on average in school performance, but this does not compromise the excellence of the university and the distance can be recovered.”