The Latin America Supplement
Social Impact in Brazil’s DNA
While the country has a two-tiered system for higher education access, Brazilian universities are fighting to embed social impact into their mission and increase participation in higher ed.
By Nick Harland
In Brief
- While public universities offer free tuition, Brazil’s most wealthy and therefore best prepared are most likely to receive an offer of place, reflecting deep national inequalities. Yet, this backdrop has fostered a profound drive for social impact within its institutions.
- To address this, Brazil launched subsidised loans programme, FIES, in 1999 and scholarships programme, ProUni, in 2005. These initiatives, along with private financing, have boosted university degree holders from 6.8% to 18.4% over two decades.
- Brazil’s systemic challenges have spurred its universities to embed social purpose deeply into their mission through unique extension programmes. These initiatives actively engage with local communities to provide social transformation, aiming to bridge the country’s significant societal divides.
On the face of things, Brazil should be one of the most popular study destinations in the world. Tuition is free at the country’s public universities, it is home to universities and business schools that feature in the top 100 of global rankings, and living costs pale in comparison with its European, North American and some Asian counterparts. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Brazil can also boast some of the most stunning natural landscapes in the world.
Yet the proportion of international students in the country has remained consistently, stubbornly, frustratingly low. According to the OECD, Brazil has one of the smallest proportions of international students enrolled in its programmes among OECD and partner countries (0.2 percent percent). A separate study found that as of 2016, the proportion of international students in Brazil was approximately 1.5 percent - though that figure did double between 2007 and 2015. So, what’s holding Brazil back?
Victor Hugo Baseggio is the co-founder of CI Intercâmbio, which helps Brazilians find study opportunities abroad. He says outbound is the more common direction of travel for higher education in Brazil.
"Brazilian students are often drawn to study abroad for language immersion and perceived prestige,” he explains. “On the flip side, Brazil receives fewer international students due to language barriers, visa hurdles and limited internationalisation of its institutions. Safety perceptions and lack of structured English-taught programs also play a role."
Yet, it’s not just outside perceptions that are limiting Brazil’s undoubted potential. Once students arrive in the country, there are a number of obstacles that make it difficult to settle. Baseggio explains how everything from opening a bank account (for which you need proof of income) to renting accommodation (for which you need a local guarantor) is complicated for international students. "Brazil knows how to be bureaucratic,” he smiles. "It seems the system is against the development [of international education]. This is a common feeling you have here."
Even the country’s public universities, where you can study for free, aren’t quite what they appear. Competition for places is fierce, and only the best-educated and best-prepared for the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM), the national high school entrance exam for university, are likely to be admitted. That makes it hard for international students to win a place, but even harder for Brazil’s lower-income domestic students.
“You don't have to pay for public universities in Brazil, but the problem is that only the wealthy students that go to private school are the ones that can pass the exam. So, in a way, it is pretty unfair."
In a country rated as one of the 10 most unequal in the world by the OECD, that inequality pervades higher education too. "You don't have to pay for public universities in Brazil, but the problem is that only the wealthy students that go to private school are the ones that can pass the exam. So, in a way, it is pretty unfair,” says Baseggio.
According to Fernanda Rates, International Partnerships Manager at Nova School of Business and Economics, this situation has created a ‘paradox’ in Brazilian higher education. It means that the students who can afford to pay for higher education end up studying at the country’s free public universities - and those who can’t afford it often miss out. “The majority of people that study for free at public university are the healthiest and the wealthiest,” she says.
Yet, as competition has intensified to be admitted into public universities, the number of available places has broadly stayed the same. It means that lower quality private providers are increasingly plugging the gaps in the public system.
“There’s a growing gap between public and private education in terms of quality,” says Baseggio. “Private universities serve over 75 percent of higher education students but often focus on less costly, mass-market degrees with lower investment in research."
But in recent years, policies have been enacted and progress has been made. The country launched ProUni in 2005, which provides scholarships to low-income students. FIES (Student Financing Fund), launched in 1999. provides subsidised loans that students can pay off after they graduate, whilst a number of private financing initiatives from Brazil’s wealthiest individuals have also sprouted up. It means that between 2000 and 2022, the proportion of over 25s in Brazil holding a university degree grew from 6.8 percent to 18.4 percent.
Though Brazil’s inherent inequality has created a two-tier system in its higher education, it has also created something which appears unique to the country: a deep sense of social purpose in its universities. Indeed, very few countries seem to have it so deeply embedded within their DNA as Brazil.
“I think this [inequality] is the biggest reason why we are so focused on social impact,” explains Rates. "Public universities were launched to provide an economic and political place for people that do not have the possibility to grow their income. So they don’t just provide education, but provide social transformation as well."
Mauricio Jucá de Queiroz, Dean of FIA Business School, says this focus on social impact is ‘rooted in Brazil's historical educational role and socio-economic context.’ It means that Brazilian universities have a lot of direct engagement with the local community.
“Brazilian higher education uniquely focuses on extension programmes (extensão), which are integrated into its mission alongside teaching and research,” he explains. “These involve students and faculty working in public schools, favelas, rural areas, legal clinics and health centres.”
Though inequality has forced many Brazilians to become entrepreneurs ”not because they want to, but because they need to”, in the words of Rates, the situation has also presented a chance for universities to expand their social impact. An initiative Rates helped facilitate with business school Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC) connected mentors from the school with entrepreneurs from the country’s low-income states and favelas.
During these projects, the school’s students and alumni would try to pass on some of their business knowledge to some of the most disadvantaged people in Brazilian society. “One of the programmes that we did was to provide management skills to women entrepreneurs,” says Rates. “They had mentors and a network of companies that would provide, for instance, the meat and the different types of food they would prepare. And then we organised a network of people that would distribute and sell [the food] so they could generate income for them.”
Meanwhile, FIA Business School has carried out over ten thousand social impact projects through consulting, education and research. For example, its ‘O Mar Tá pra Peixe’ (The Sea Is for the Fish) programme has helped train over 300 female and male fishers and their families, combating poverty in coastal communities. Other projects have aimed to promote the inclusion of organic food in school meals, train female leaders in the agriculture industry and widen access to essential medicines in Latin America.
Brazil is very much a country that operates on two different levels, and sometimes there can feel like a chasm between the richest and poorest in the country. But in many cases, these two groups simply don’t interact with each other.
Bringing Brazil’s two worlds closer together is at the centre of these social impact projects. Students don’t just work on theoretical projects in the classroom, they actually get out and meet the people they’re trying to help. But maybe more than anything, the projects are a chance for people living worlds apart to meet on a one-to-one level and learn something from each other.
“It's brilliant because sometimes we have a mindset of: oh, they're poor, they don't have anything to offer,” says Rates. “But they have a lot to offer.”
Higher education in Brazil is clearly facing a lot of challenges, but its potential seems almost limitless. And as the country’s universities strive to make that social impact they’re built around, it’s perhaps a reminder to the rest of us that helping each other out can never be a bad thing.
"When you put yourself in the position to support and help [other people],” says Rates, “you get the support in your life in a way that is way more profound and transformative."