In this way, a worksheet with three folders was built. The first contemplated the budget, recording the budget volumes approved by law - nominal and real in December 2021 prices - and the budget volumes spent - nominal and real in December 2021 prices. Student Assistance actions for each of the IFES indicated by the Census variable called Social Support, comprising housing, food, transportation, permanence grant, work grant and educational material support actions. Finally, the last one stored the dropout volumes per institution present in the Census and which respond to cases of “Disengaged from the Course” in the variable “Academic Situation”. For all modules, cut-off variables such as region or age of the institution were used.
Therefore, in order to analyze the research object cut out by the budget of the National Student Assistance Program, by the extent of program coverage and dropout statistics, it was decided to section the collective of federal universities by their ages of accreditation with the Ministry of Education. Education (BRASIL, 2022), prioritizing the investigation of those universities that we call brand new – institutions created after 2007, that is, institutions created from the Support Program for Restructuring and Expansion Plans of Federal Universities (Reuni).