Former students from federal schools and access to the most selective courses at the Federal University of Minas Gerais before and after affirmative action policies

Research shows that former students from federal schools tend to enroll in higher education in higher proportions than students from other public schools do. The article analyzes how this relative advantage was affected by the implementation of affirmative action policies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. For this, the participation of students from federal schools in the ten most selective undergraduate courses of the university is analyzed in three moments: 2005 (before affirmative action policies), 2010 (period of validity of a local bonus policy) and 2018 (period of validity of the Quota Law- 12,711/2012). Based on data provided by the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, it was found that there is an important democratization of access to the most selective courses at UFMG, with a greater presence of former students from public schools. The participation of students from federal schools doubled over the period and the participation of students from state/municipal schools tripled. It can be said that there was an increase in the overrepresentation of students from federal schools and a decrease in the underrepresentation of students from state and municipal schools. In the analysis of two extremely selective career courses, Medicine and Chemical Engineering, it was identified that the growth of students from federal schools is higher than that of students from municipal and state schools, indicating that in this case the inequalities among types of public schools have expanded.