This paper presents results of a research focusing on the Programa Universidade para Todos (ProUni) in the context of the Centro Universitário do Leste de Minas Gerais (UniLeste/MG). The purpose of the study was to identify challenges and implications of ProUni in the context of the institutional practices of UniLeste/MG, as well as the program's effectiveness in terms of black students' access to higher education in the Metropolitan Area of the Steel Valley. Affirmative action policies and the struggle of the Black Movement to achieve the access to higher education are the main legal, political and historical frameworks supporting the research. The ProUni was investigated from the UniLeste/MG professors' and managers' perspectives, by means of document analysis and interviews. The program has expanded the admission of students in the academic environment; however, there is still a lack of measures to minimize the narratives of the myth of racial democracy and to ensure that scholars complete higher education successfully. It is therefore legitimate to question what influences and agendas are recognized in the State's actions in implementing affirmative policies such as the ProUni.
ProUni; affirmative action policies; Black Movement; higher education