The National Student Assistance Policy and Program

This work is part of the field of higher education social and educational policies and seeks to analyze the student assistance policy and its materialization (scope and effectiveness). To this end, it outlines an investigation into the student assistance program at the Federal University of Itajubá in Minas Gerais, taking it as a field of research. It is believed that this policy is capable of promoting some reduction in social inequality by ensuring that students remain in federal public higher education. Here, student assistance is discussed conceptually, contrasting it with the concept of social assistance, since during the research some misunderstandings about these terms were noted. This research showed that the PNAES is the result of a long process of struggle by social and student movements.