ESTUDO SOBRE AS EVASÕES DE ESTUDANTES NO CURSO DE SERVIÇO SOCIAL DA UNIOESTE, CAMPUS DE FRANCISCO BELTRÃO/PR

Abstract

Based on the growing phenomenon of dropout in higher education in Brazil, this article presents the reality, impacts, and strategies adopted by the Social Work course at the State University of Western Paraná (UNIOESTE), Francisco Beltrão campus, established in 2015. Thus, in celebration of the 10 years of the course, this article aims to address the dilemmas and challenges regarding the effective achievement of course completion, often interrupted by the high and historic dropout rate. This study, supported by a scientific initiation project funded with a research grant in the category of affirmative actions, adopted methodological procedures such as bibliographic research, documentary analysis, and field approach with students who are active in the training process, investigating their understanding and knowledge about the predominant reasons for dropouts, as well as aiming to identify the profile of the student body, and thus, contribute to the course regarding mediation strategies. The analysis method was based on critical social theory and results indicate that, with the migration of the course offering from the morning to the evening period and the reformulation of the PPP (2023), the scenario has shown important, yet still insufficient, advances, as the lack of an efficient and effective student assistance policy hinders the necessary progress for retention and completion.