Quotas in the Medicine course at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Abstract

This article analyzes the quota policy in Brazilian universities, using the case of the State University of Rio de Janeiro and especially the university medical course. The choice of the institution was due to the fact that it is the university that was given the responsibility to inaugurate the policy in Brazil, being under criticism and controversy from the first moments and currently undergoing an attempt to reverse this policy by state legislature. The course was chosen for being of high social prestige, historically populated by the elites, and with a very high degree of entry difficulty. The interest in finding out how this policy is viewed in a course with these characteristics was the driving force of this research. It was intended to find out who are the beneficiary students of this program, paying attention to their socioeconomic and cultural characteristics. It also sought to understand how these students' relationships are given, among themselves, among other students, teachers and university life. The research work methodology was based on document analysis and field research. The minutes of the UERJ Superior Council (Consun), national and state laws and UERJ's statistical database, DataUerj, were analyzed. Interviews were also conducted with quota students and non-quota students of the course, regarding the perceptions of these actors about the policy analyzed. The theoretical framework discusses concepts about credentialism, meritocracy and subordinate spaces.