The article analyzes, given the evidence of higher dropout rates among Higher Education students, the responses given by the Education Ministry, by Brazilian HEIs (especially federal institutions), and the experience of professors and students during the period in which the restrictive measures were in force, resulting from the Covid-19 Pandemic. It also announces some of the main difficulties that have been faced in returning to face-to-face activities and the traditional academic experience. Methodologically, it is supported by bibliographic research, aiming at an exploratory and descriptive work. We chose the Scielo platform as the main bibliographic database. The procedure helped us to observe the experience of students and professors with Emergency Remote Teaching, without directly resorting to empirical reality; to reconstruct, with the available data, the teaching-learning experience during an unprecedented situation for this generation; and, qualitatively analyze the importance of permanence policies that go beyond the distribution of cash resources and/or digital inclusion. The main gain we noticed is the revival of the debate on distance education and the didactics and teaching practice in public universities, in addition to the strengthening of student permanence policies.