INTERNATIONAL LEARNING
While President Obama has set a goal for the US of having the highest graduation rate in the world by 2020, the country has yet to commit the necessary resources to attain this goal; in- stead the government has chosen to increase regulatory scrutiny (i.e. gainful employment). Te
picture at the state level isn’t any better. According to the University of California’s president, Mark Yudof, “In the last decade, statehouse support for higher learning, as measured by constant dollars appropriated for each full-time-equivalent student, decreased in 30 of the nation’s 50 states.”
#2–Trust in a Private Sector
Today, private, fee-paying students (at non-profit and proprietary institutions) account for 74 percent of Brazil’s total enrollment in higher education. Te country believes in, and more impor- tantly, trusts the private sector to take the lead in moving its education system forward. Te gov-
ernment understands that the private sector has the money, resources, expertise and centralization to effectively educate its population and just as importantly, hasn’t developed regulations to restrict these institutions.
In a recent analysis of the Brazilian higher education system, Clarissa Eckert Baeta Neves, a sociology professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, remarked on the country’s free-market approach to higher edu- cation. Specifically, she noted that the Brazilian higher education market “buys and sells institutions, goes public with their capital, rationalizes costs and employs vigorous marketing campaigns to support higher education.” What’s more, “it strenuously resists government-imposed rules for supervision and control that the educational entrepreneurs find excessively rigid and controlling.”10
Even though proprietary college students account for only 10 percent and 12 percent of US col- lege students, these institutions have been disproportionately singled out by the US government and placed under more stringent regulatory oversight compared to their not-for-profit coun-
terparts, making it increasingly difficult for proprietary and career colleges to serve the millions of Americans looking to gain access to education. With the decline of federal and state funding, proprietary institutions will play an important role in educating students who are typically shut out of public colleges and universities–if the US hopes to meet President Obama’s objective.
#3–Career-Driven Education
Education in Brazil is career-driven, not liberal arts driven. Universities in Brazil successfully part- ner with large employers and have a pulse on the needs of these companies, and therefore develop programs that are geared to help students establish a new career or advance their current one.
Brazil has created an extremely effective, career-oriented higher education model, one which serves students of every background and economic status. One of the institutions delivering on that model is Instituto Infnet in Rio de Janeiro, an education partner of Microsoft and new client of Campus Management. Infnet is a propri- etary institution specializing in IT and digital-design training. Te school has partnered with over 500 employ- ers in Rio de Janeiro to provide students a direct career path and to develop curricula that align with the
24 JULY/AUG 2012 •
TODAYSCAMPUS.COM
(9) Neves, Clarissa Eckert Baeta. Higher Education in Brazil: Access and Equality Trough Social Inclusion Policies. (10)
http://www.ufrgs.br/geu/texto.pdf
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