The expansion of higher education in the last decades in Brazil has followed a pattern that can also be seen in other countries: diversification and institutional differentiation have profoundly transformed its structure, leading to the adoption of new types of institutions and learning, an improvement in academic standards and wider socio-economic diversity when it comes to students and professors.

Brazilian higher education has developed into a complex system of 2,587 institutions, divided into public (institutions under the control of federal, state and municipal governments) and private (non-profit and for-profit) sectors, which have various levels of autonomy depending on their academic organisation that is, whether they are universities, university centres or colleges.

The private sector, which is composed mainly of small and medium-sized colleges, accounts for 87% of institutions and its courses focus on the humanities. The most technologically demanding and expensive courses are generally provided by public institutions, which are predominantly large research universities.Continue reading→