COVID-19 and the crisis in the internationalization of higher education in emerging contexts

Abstract

This article analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Brazilian context and highlights the impacts of internationalization of higher education in the country. Qualitative in nature, the article is characterized as an exploratory-descriptive research, carried out from a bibliographic and documentary examination. Analysis: it was revealed that Latin America and the Caribbean are parts of the global regions most affected by the pandemic that experienced severe negative aggravation in their economies. In particular, in Brazil, findings reveal that the repercussions of the crisis impacted the public resources for education through budget cuts, while the private institutions suffered from an increase in defaults and evasion. Internationalization as a transversal dimension of higher education also suffered from the effects of the pandemic, and in Brazil, information and communication technologies were used to maintain international and intercultural learning and academic cooperation. This made it possible to increase the number of students benefited and to print out an equitable perspective on internationalization of higher education. For the future, it will be necessary to consolidate strategies that include information and communication technologies and promote the strengthening of cooperation networks, with the development of policies that support a more symmetrical relationship in the South–South and South–North, even in unfavorable scenarios.