Attracting university professors to interior cities in Brazil: Individual perceptions as a basis for educational planning

Abstract

One of the difficulties in Latin American development is attracting highly qualified professionals to interior cities with growth potential. Also, as in most less developed countries of the world, this is accompanied by a tendency toward a permanent ruralurban migration of the existing, more qualified personnel, leaving interior regions deficient in an important development resource. In this study a culturally versatile method to identify perceived desirable characteristics of cities as places to work and live is proposed. A triadic selection procedure and factor analysis are employed with a case study sample of graduate students in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The results show that there are four major categories of attributes (population, economic, cultural, and physical) which could be used as incentives to attract people to medium sized interior cities in developing countries. Various ways in which the local university could be employed in such strategies are presented as examples of planning possibilities.