Privatization of Higher Education in Brazil: Old and New Issues

Abstract

The chapter addresses two aspects of the process of commodification and privatization of higher education in Brazil: the emergence of new providers and public funding for students in the private sector. Two peculiarities distinguish this process in Brazil from other countries: a legal framework that has been under construction since the 1960s, which not only allowed the private sector to grow, but, more recently, opened the way for the emergence of a large for-profit sector; and the predominance since the 1970s of private over public enrollments. The hypothesis is that the advance of privatization and commodification of higher education in Brazil is a function of the structural and normative conditions intrinsic to the development of the country, which, in turn, reveal the correlation of forces among different actors participating in the formulation and implementation of higher education policies since the middle of the last century. The study is based on statistical data, official documents and interviews with private providers.