The ascendancy of for-profit higher education in Brazil: just a matter of quantity?

• In Event: Perceptions of a moving target: how for-profit higher education is viewed globally

Proposal

The expansion of higher education systems worldwide is an established trend. Global enrollment reflects mass access – even universal access -- to higher education in many developed and developing countries. Latin America is no exception to this trend. While public universities have played different roles in enrollment growth, in some Latin American countries, and Brazil in particular, enrollment growth has occurred mostly at private institutions of higher education. Far from typical cases where private higher education (PHE) expanded before regulatory frameworks were put in place or where the sector faced a hostile regulatory environment, policymakers in Brazil promoted massification of the higher education system through the private sector. In the 1990s, the federal government began allowing higher education institutions to operate as for-profit entities. Just six years after the decision was made, the for-profit sector had enrolled almost a million students, and in 2015, for-profit institutions had enrolled more than three million students, surpassing the public (nearly 2 million students) and the private nonprofit (more than 2.5 million students) sectors.

This paper explores how the establishment of the higher education system, the role of the public sector, and policies affecting PHE continue to shape the changing Brazilian system. It first compares Brazilian higher education to global and regional trends, which includes an analysis of massification and universalization of higher education, how key policies evolved over time, and the role of PHE. The second part focuses on recent developments in the private sector, such as the legalization of for-profit higher education institutions and the sharp enrollment growth experienced by this sector that was supported by an expansion of government loans and grants. A third part discusses accountability mechanisms that policymakers put in place to address concerns about quality in PHE. Unexpectedly, despite the distrust of PHE in Brazil, a preliminary analysis of the results of program evaluations shows little difference in performance between public and private (nonprofit and for-profit) sectors. This is in direct conflict with the conventional wisdom that the private sector, and mainly for-profits, inherently provides lower-quality education.

Author

• Dante J Salto, National Scientific and Technical Research Council / National University of Cordoba