Evolving contours and challenges of private higher education in Brazil
- Professor Eliana Martorano Amaral, Universidade de Campinas
- Professor Flávio Carvalhães, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
- Jonathan Williams , German Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (DZHW)
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The Brazilian higher education system is exceptional in several regards. In Trow’s parlance, it has preserved an elite public university system, albeit one with widening efforts to enhance inclusion of students of lower socioeconomic status. Massification has been delegated almost entirely to the private sector, which enrolls some three-quarters of students. Private higher education is predominantly demand-absorbing in the framework of Levy (2024), unusually so within Latin America. A group of conglomerates now enroll millions of students across the country, following a process of financialization notably over the past twenty years. Private higher education has also shifted massively to online learning, such that now the majority of students in Brazilian higher education study online. The panel would firstly discuss the concentration of private sector provision in Brazil and its increasing emphasis on online learning. It will secondly consider quality concerns and policy responses, focusing on the special case of exceptional growth in Medicine undergraduate education, with Brazil’s 400 medical schools second only to India. Insights from Brazil should shed light on similar policy concerns in other jurisdictions.
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Professor Eliana Amaral is a tenured Full Professor in Obstetrics at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has published research on higher education program development, education for health professionals, and quality care in Obstetrics, and is also a practitioner in all these areas. Professor Amaral is Chair of the Global Advisory Committee at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) (USA), an international faculty member for the International FAIMER Institute (IFI) in Philadelphia, and a technical advisor for the Reproductive Health Division (RP2) at the World Health Organization (WHO). She was previously the chair and is the current co-chair for the Higher Education Board at the Sao Paulo Council of Education. At UNICAMP, Professor Amaral was previously vice-president for Undergraduate Education (2017-2021) and is the current coordinator of the Nucleus on Assessment and Evaluation for Health Professions Education at the School of Medical Sciences.
Flavio Carvalhaes is an Associate Professor at the Sociology Department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Professor Carvalhaes has developed research in the areas of social inequality, perceptions of wealth and inequality, educational stratification, higher education expansion and comparative and international education. His recent publications include “Higher Education Expansion and Diversification: Privatization, Distance Learning, and Market Concentration in Brazil, 2002–2016” and “Decomposing Heterogeneity in Inequality of Educational Opportunities: Family Income and Academic Performance in Brazilian Higher Education”. Beyond academia, prof. Carvalhaes has acted as an advisor in Brazil to the National Prosecutor Office, the Ministry of Education, and the National Bureau of Educational Statistics, among others.
Jonathan Williams is a doctoral researcher based at the German Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (DZHW) and a consultant affiliated with SIRIS Academic. He was previously Vice President and Director of Research with Higher Education Strategy Associates (HESA). Past consulting clients include the World Bank, the OECD, UNESCO, institutions across North America and Europe. His research interests centre on higher education provider differentiation and system financing. Jonathan’s academic background is in international development and public policy, and he has degrees from the University of Ottawa and the Harvard Kennedy School.
