Access to private higher education in Brazil: empirical analysis of growth with panel data (1995-2017)

Abstract

From the stabilization of the Brazilian economy that occurred in 1994 until the year 2017, there was a considerable increase in access to private higher education. Inclusive policies, that guaranteed access to higher education, increased the number of students in private undergraduate courses by 339% in the period analyzed. The economic stability achieved by the country since the decade of 1994 guaranteed better living conditions for Brazilians who, with educational stimuli, could rise in the escalation of formal university education. The aim of this article is to empirically verify how the improvement in Brazilian’s living conditions is related to access to private higher education. For this, the econometric strategy used was the panel data regression model for the time series of enrollments in higher education in the five major Brazilian regions. The variables that incorporate the living conditions of Brazilians in this study are the real wage, the cost of living, inflation and the unemployment rate. Evidence indicates that, in addition to inclusive policies, real wages and falling living costs were decisive for increasing enrollment in private higher education institutions. It was also revealed that unemployment and inflation in Brazil did not bring about effects that would generate disinterest in the population in attending a university, which was supported by the educational incentives carried out in the country.