Higher Education, Development, and Inequality in Brazil and South Africa

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2018.2.4.052

Abstract

This article has the premise that South Africa and Brazil spaces share contextual and geopolitical characteristics with a history of great inequalities, racial and gender discrimination and these and other related factors serve as barriers constraining education. Considering the remarkable expansion of higher education systems in both countries on the last 25 years, and its uneven effects, some questions are raised as a challenge in this article. Does this growth in enrolments create high quality or ‘world-class universities’ in these countries? Is it possible to find South African or Brazilian universities in the international rankings of institutional higher education? Has such expansion produced a full democratization of educational opportunities? Or, in other words, does any skilled and hardworking student, regardless of his/her social background, have equal chances of access to the best courses and universities? In order to try to answer these questions, we begin characterizing the expansion of higher education systems over the last two and a half decades in both countries. Regarding policies of access by poor students to higher education system, we taking in account and compare some initiatives in both countries, such as Reuni, Fies and Prouni in Brazil, and  National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), in South Africa. Our analysis, following the tradition of sociological research, understands that the mode of operation of higher education institutions stands out as one of the key factors in the mechanisms and social conflicts that increase or reduce inequalities. Focusing on the basic distinction between public and private sector, for Brazil, and the persistence of distinction between historically black and white institutions, in South Africa, we try to show that both countries improved the access to higher education systems and managed to create some world-class institutions. Even so, social and gender inequalities persist and there are too few such institutions, especially in Brazil.

Author Biographies

Maria Lígia de Oliveira Barbosa, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Maria Lígia de Oliveira Barbosa has a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1977) and a doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Campinas  (Unicamp) (1993). She is a researcher of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CNPq), professor of sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where she coordinates the Laboratory for Research on Higher Education, she also researches social inequalities, educational policies and professions. Former Vice-President of the Brazilian Sociological Society (2015-2017).

André Pires, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Brazil

André Pires has a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil, where he had also received MA in Social Anthopology. In 2017 he was Postoctoral Research Fellow in Princeton University. He teaches and advises students in the Graduate School of Education at Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas. His research focus on Education and Poverty, specially Cash Transfer Programs and its relates to education.

Tom Dwyer, University of Campinas, Brazil

Tom Dwyer's doctorate is from the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (1978), he is a researcher of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CNPq) and currently full professor in Sociology at the University of Campinas (Unicamp). General editor of Handbook of the Sociology of Youth in BRICS countries (2018), he coorganised a special issue of the journal Hermès (CNRS, Paris) on BRICS a forgotten space in 2017, in 2016 he coedited the pioneering book Young university students in a world in transformation: a Sino-Brazilian Study, published in Chinese and Portuguese. He has published widely on accidents, error and information technology use. At Unicamp he coordinates the Brazil-China Study Group and the Brazilian BRICS Studies project in the BRICS Network University. Past president of the Brazilian Sociological Society (2005-2009).

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Published
2018-12-15
How to Cite
de Oliveira Barbosa, M., Pires, A., & Dwyer, T. (2018). Higher Education, Development, and Inequality in Brazil and South Africa. Changing Societies & Personalities, 2(4), 366–392. doi:10.15826/csp.2018.2.4.052
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 2, No. 4 (2018): Special Issue: "Higher Education in the BRICS and the Global South: A Driver for the Development?"
Section
Articles