Brazilian higher education from a post‐colonial perspective

Abstract

This article examines Brazilian higher education (HE) politics from a post‐colonial perspective. The term ‘post‐colonial’ originally referred to a historical period of colonial empires established by European nations. Nowadays, the term commonly distinguishes a field of contemporary studies of ‘defamiliarisation of the imperial North’ made up of successive acts of unlearning and re‐learning. In the text I discuss the effects of globalisation on the Brazilian HE system, with emphasis on the outstanding role of evaluation and accreditation procedures. These are preparing the HE system for increasing internationalisation. Brazil, the new global player, is showing its potential in HE political acts of unlearning and re‐learning. The epistemology could be called ‘anthropophagic’ because instead of copying foreign ideas there is a tendency to create new ones and re‐elaborate them with a Global North anticipatory view and an accent on Global South localism.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• higher education system
• internationalisation
• evaluation and accreditation

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Dr Eva Hartmann for the invitation to the Lausanne Workshop and for her kind comments on the preliminary draft text. I would like to thank Dr Boaventura Santos for the opportunity to discuss globalisation university models during a postdoctoral internship, in 2002, at CES, the University of Coimbra, Portugal. I am grateful to Hedy Hoffmann, who translated this paper into English.

Notes

1. In general economic terms, the country is entering the twenty‐first century with a strong domestic economy, solid financial institutions, an active stock market (Bovespa), and trade relations with many countries in the world. The per capita GDP rose from US$3654 in 2002 to US$8676 in 2008, while the birth rate is tending to slow down – it is estimated that this will reduce to 0.24% in 2050. It has the wealth of black gold, drilling for oil in deep waters using the most sophisticated technology. It has a large, diversified industry, including an aeronautic industry; an active export list of industrialised and primary products; and a broad profile of international partners. It has international reserves of more than 200 billion dollars and it is also transferring 10 billion dollars as a loan to the World Bank. President Lula’s government priority is to invest in the social sector, with a view to reducing poverty and improving conditions of health and education. The Growth Acceleration program – PAC (Programa de Aceleração de Crescimento) – has been increased to R$645 billion. The Family Grant (Bolsa Família) program is maintained. These are funds received directly by poor families for each child enrolled in school and taken off the streets. There is financing, partly à fonds perdu, to build one million homes for the low‐income classes. The growth acceleration measures are the results of social policies that are beginning to show positive results. In 2002 the rate of poverty in the country was 42.5% of the population. In June 2009, during a full blown world economic crisis, poverty was reduced to its lowest level, that is, 0.493 points in the GINI Index, corresponding to 31.1% of the population of the big cities, which means 14.5 million people. The Gini Index measures social inequality and it is calculated by IPEA (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada).

2. As compared to BRICs, the country has a GDP of US$1.573 trillion, which brings it close to Russia and is higher than the GDP of India. The per capita GDP shows the increasing purchasing power of the population. It has a higher (upper middle income) economy rating than China and India (http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications/country-and-lending-groups). The HDI (Human Development Index) ilose to that of Russia and higher than the HDIs of India and China. Income group: economies are divided according to 2008 GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976–$3,855; upper middle income, $3,856–$11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/HOMEPORTUGUESE/.

3. http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_jfilter&view=colunas&Itemid=187.

4. The World Development Report 2000–2001, Attacking poverty (World Bank 2001) concluded that major reductions in poverty were possible despite the huge scale of the problem at the start of the new century, with 2.8 billion of the world’s six billion people living on less than $2. In 1995 it was affirmed that 82.5% of the total population live in countries considered poor, and the other 14.8% live in countries considered rich, because they have 78.5% of the world’s revenue. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/0,,contentMDK:20313941~menuPK:607028~pagePK:478093~piPK:477627~theSitePK:477624,00.html.

5. Brazilian HES: 2252 HEIs, 183 universities, 5,808,017 students enrolled in 2008. http://www.inep.gov.br/download/censo/2008/Sinopse_Estatistica_da_Educacao_Superior_2008_versao_preliminar.xls.

6. In this paper I will make use of the terms university and higher education in spite of the fact that they are not interchangeable words. Universities are part of the system as well as university centers, integrated schools or technological schools and institutions.

7. The regulating legislation comprehends the Federal Constitution of 1988, Art. 84 Inc. IV and VI; the LDB (Guidelines and Educational Foundations Law), Law 9394/96 and the Decree 3860/2001.

8. BRICS Students Internationalisation (2006): Brazil: 19,619; India: 123,559; China: 343,126; Russia: 34,473 (GUNI 2007).

9. Treaty of Asunción, Protocol of Ouro Preto, Decisions Nr. 18/04 and 28/04 of the Council of the Common Market; MERCOSUL/CMC/DEC. Nr 17/08 of 30/VI/08.

10. The follow up meetings were held in: Paris, France (October 2001); Fortaleza, Brazil (March 2002); Merida, Mexico (July 2002); Cordova, Spain (October 2002); Paris, France (April 2003); Belo Horizonte, Brazil (April 2004); Madrid, Spain (November 2004); Quetaro, Mexico (March 2005); Paris, France (December 2005); Alagoas, Brazil (April 2006).

11. Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States of America and Brazil. http://www.fulbright.org.br.

12. http://www.fordfound.org/regions/brazil/overview.

13. Nineties reforms – Latin American HE system reforms oriented by globalisation pressures. They correspond to the same reforms that took place in advanced countries. See Kent (1997) and for a counterpoint Mollis (2003).