Background:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, quarantine and other prevention measures impacted the educational system by affecting the preparation and the quality of teaching.

Objective:
To identify factors associated with the discontinuance of academic activities by students due to funding issues in the context of the pandemic.

Method:
This quantitative, exploratory cross-sectional study was carried out in a private higher education institution (HEI) in the city of Vitória, Espírito Santo (ES), Brazil. Data was collected through google forms from Nov/2021 to Jan/2022. Analysis was made with SPSS Statistics version 24 and STATA version 15.1 programs.

Results:
846 students participated in the research, 52% of the students enrolled at the HEI in 2021, with an average age of 22 years, 75.3% women, 63.1% white, and 54.3% from social class A, of which 80.5% of students do not work. Results showed that 9.46% students were unable to complete academic activities due to tuition issues, of which the majority were brown/black unmarried women, without a job, enrolled in the social service program, from social class B, with an income of up to 3 minimum wages, and received financial support from a family member aside from student grants.

Conclusion:
This study contemplates the multifunctional role of women in society, as well as the difficulties they encounter. It was demonstrated that, although student grants promote social protection, they alone were not enough to prevent the cessation of academic activities. It is necessary to carry out an analysis considering the different intersections that relate to women’s experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic due to economic and political instability in Brazil, reinforcing inequalities in educational public policies for women.