The evolution of higher education in Brazil is described and proposals for its reform analysed. Enrollment growth in the 1970s favoured private institutions and most of the expansion was absorbed by private non-university establishments. The article next examines the financing of higher education in Brazil before turning to efficiency and equity issues. To improve the latter more students from low-income families must complete secondary education and have access to good-quality subsidized higher education. A system of loans and of scholarships for the needy is suggested for a system in which the inequity problems at higher education are a consequence of inefficiencies at the basic education level.
I. The evolution of higher education and the proposals for its reforms
The creation of universities in Brazil differs markedly from their establishment in Spanish America. In their former colonies, many universities have been created since the XVIth century by the Spaniards. Portugal prohibited their installation in Brazil, forcing those who sought higher education to study abroad, mainly at the University of Coimbra. A few professional schools (Law, Medicine and Engineering) were established in the XIXth century. At the beginning of the XXth century the first attempts were made to create universities, such as the University of mmazonas.
During the thirties, two major attempts to start universities in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were made, but only in Sao Paulo did they succeed.~ Previously, in 1931, major legislation was approved by the Congress regarding the creation and organization of universities. In the early fifties, following the growth of isolated schools many federal universities were created by incorporating existing colleges and schools under a central administration. The schools were mainly established by the states, reflecting existing demands. Thus, the federal government ended up with responsibility for many federal universities, loosely organised and with most teachers having no graduate studies, because it had more resources than the states to deal with the enrollment expansion. Before this, however, anticipating the needs for financing the training of teachers abroad and the provision of scholarships for the first courses requiring full-time students, the federal government had established two agencies, CAPES in 1950 and CNPq in 1952, which since the seventies have provided the support required by the ever expanding graduate courses.
Already in the late fifties the federal universities were suffering serious constraints in at least three areas: organization, enrollment growth and research and graduate studies. The universities were still a collection of separate schools, usually installed in old, non-functional buildings and located in different sections of the city. Thus,