STUDENT AID POLICY IN BRAZILIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: Federal University of Santa Catarina Department of Student Affair Students’ Social Welfare STUDENT AID POLICY IN BRAZILIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: Challenges to Social Work Nelize Moscon Marafon | nelize.moscon@ufsc.br Claudia Priscila C. Dos Santos | claudia.priscila@ufsc.br As a recent field of work, Social Work is responsible for the implementation of this policy, among other professionals. Possibilities and challenges are found, especially in face of inherent contradictions of this policy that compromises its effectiveness. OBJECTIVE The objective is to analyze the student assistance programs developed in a Public University located in Southern Brazil and demonstrate the professional challenges to Social Work in this course of action. This is a study based on documentary analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. problems in the microstructure level: university does not provide adequate physical space that compromises the quality in providing service; few number of professionals to compose the work team; extremely bureaucratic process instead of a more comprehensive and multi-professional approach in attending students; increase of vulnerable students as consequence to the implementation of the positive discriminative action. INTRODUCING THE TOPIC The Brazilian student aid policy in public universities, established in 2008, aims to promote educational attainment through attendance and the democratization of access to public universities for students from vulnerable social groups. problems in the macrostructural level: the public expenditure is extremely low regarding the priority of state budget; the coverage of attendance is also low with few students included while many are excluded; tendency of monetization of programs instead providing services. Since 2013, positive discriminative action was established in Brazil which reserves 50% of enrollment in public universities for student who attended high school in the public educational system. The quota system includes black and indigenous students and students whose family receives less than Brazilian minimum wage per person. Universities autonomously design their student aid programs which should include scholarships, accommodation, canteens amongst other amenities in order to establish social inclusion, using budget resources defined by the state which is frequently inefficient for complete response to students’ needs. IMPLICATION FOR SOCIAL WORK DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE Even with problems in the breadth and universality of coverage, these programs have demonstrated to be effective for the educational attainment through attendance specially for students historically excluded from access to public university. The knowledge production promoted by Social Work research is needed for a richer understanding of the problems and to enhance practice, avoiding misconceptions in public policy design. IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK Brazil. Ministry of Education. Decree nº 7234, of 07/19/2010. Establishment of the Nacional Student Aid Program - PNAES. Brasília, 2010. UFSC. Normative Resolution. nº 015/CUN/2007. Establishment of the Bolsa Permanência Scholarship Program. Department of Student Affairs. Florianópolis, 2007. UFSC. Department of Student Affairs - PRAE. Annual Report Managment - 2013. Florianópolis, 2014. Banks, S. (2004). Ethics, Accountability and the Social Professions. Palvgrave Macmilian. Sposati, A. (2011) Trends in Latin America Social Policy in the 21st century. In: Revista Katálisys. Florianópolis, v. 4, n. 01. Marafon, N. M. (2015) A política de Assistência Estudantil na educação superior pública. Master dissertation. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. .