Universities and higher education in Brazil

See also: Universities in Brazil

Brazil adopts a mixed system of public and private funded universities. Usually public funded universities offer the best quality education, and they are 100% financed by the government. Public universities can be federally funded (all universities with acronyms in Portuguese starting with "UF" are federal universities), or financed by State governments (such as USP, Unicamp and Unesp in the State of São Paulo). A list of federal universities of Brazil can also be checked, as well as a list of all universities by State (List of universities in Brazil).

History of higher education in Brazil

See in depth history of Brazilian science on main article Brazilian science and technology

In some of the Spanish and English colonies in the Americas, institutions of higher learning denominated universities were established as early as the 17th century. Nevertheless, with respect to level of education, such institutions were similar to the most important Jesuit colleges in colonial Brazil, particularly those located in the cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, which likewise offered liberal arts courses in Latin, Greek, philosophy and theology. Upon graduating, students had the option of either becoming priests or continuing their studies in Europe, usually at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1759, other religious orders such as the Benedictines and Carmelites were encharged with education in Brazil, alongside "aulas-régias" funded by the Portuguese Crown. In 1792, the Escola Politécnica was founded in Rio de Janeiro. Following the arrival of D. João VI and the royal court, other schools of higher learning, although not formally called "universities", were founded in Brazil, including those specialized in civil and military engineering such as the Academia Real de Marinha (1808) and Academia Real Militar (1810). Two medical faculties were also established, the Academia Médico-Cirúrgica in Salvador (1808) and the Academia Médico-Cirúrgica in Rio de Janeiro (1809). In addition, other technical courses in the fields of botany, chemistry, geology, mineralogy and economy were created. Shortly after independence from Portugal, under the reign of D. Pedro I, faculties of law were founded in São Paulo (1827) and Olinda (1827). Many of those institutions served as nuclei that subsequently developed into modern Brazilian universities, i.e. the Federal University of Bahia, the Federal University of Pernambuco, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of São Paulo.

The Brazilian university system nowadays reflects world standards and some of Brazil's universities appear among the 500 best in the world. The University of Sao Paulo is for instance the first Ibero-American institution in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings's top-200 (Position 178 in the World)..

Degrees

• Undergraduate degrees — in Brazil called "graduate" degrees (graduação):

• Bachelor's (bacharelado): varying between 3 to 6 years of full time studies for completion. Enables individuals to act as professionals in a certain area (e.g., lawyer, economist, physician).
• Licentiate (licenciatura): varying between 3 to 4 years of full time studies for completion. Enables individuals to act as elementary or secondary school teachers in a certain area (e.g., licensed teacher of Math, of English, of Biology).
• Technology (tecnologia): varying between 2 to 3 years of full time studies for completion. Shorter, more specific professional courses aimed at providing highly specialized knowledge in a shorter amount of time (e.g., technologist on agribusiness, technologist on tourism management).

• Graduate degrees — in Brazil called "postgraduate" degrees (pós-graduação):

• "Lato sensu postgraduate" degrees: represent a specialization in a certain area, and take from 1 to 2 years until completion. A lato sensu degree is not a door opener for the later pursue of a doctoral degree. If the person is interested in a PhD, a strictu sensu master's degree should be taken instead (see below). MBA programs in Brazil are classified as lato sensu programs.

• "Stricto sensu postgraduate" degrees: enable the individual to pursue an academic career. In a chronological order:

• Master's degree (mestrado): one to two years of full time studies for completion. Often serves as additional qualification for those seeking a differential on the job market, or for those who want to pursue a PhD. A stricto sensu master's degree in management is the equivalent of a full time MBA in North America.
• Doctoral degree / PhD (doutorado): 3-4 years for completion. Usually used as a stepstone for an academic life.
• Postdoctoral degree (pós-doutorado): It is not an academic title, rather it usually denotes excellency on a field of knowledge acquired through a supervised research after doctorate.

Degree equivalence with other countries

Brazil—Europe

There is no formal treaty between the Brazilian Ministry of Education and the European Union's Bologna process. The following are rough comparisons:

• the European First Cycle would correspond to the Brazilian undergraduate degrees of bacharelado, licenciatura, and tecnologia. While a Brazilian "Bachelor" takes 3 to 6 years for completion, as well as usually a written monograph or a final project, European "Bachelors" can complete their degree in 3 years, after which they may enroll on a 1 or 2-year-long "Master's degree" in the Bologna process.
• the Second Cycle in the Bologna process would correspond to Brazilian Master's, usually taking one to two years and "lato sensu postgraduate" degrees which requries a minimal 360 hours of instruction.
• the Third Cycle in the Bologna process would be equivalent to the Brazilian Doctoral degree.

Comparing the former European national systems, the Brazilian "Bachelor" would be equivalent to the old German "Diplom", to the Italian "Laurea"; or to the French "Bac 5 ans".^{[citation needed]}

Brazil—USA

Brazilian Bachelor's degrees could be compared to a four-year Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in the United States. Brazilian and American Master's and Doctoral degrees are roughly equivalent.

Credits

There is no an unified academic credit system in Brazil. The regulating bodies of the Ministry of Education and the legislation count the hours of instruction. A full time year of higher education takes between 800 and 1200 instruction-hours in Brazil, which would be equivalent to 30 US credits and 60 European ECTS.

Vestibular (University entrance examination)

For in depth information on Vestibular see Vestibular

In order to enter university in Brazil, candidates must undergo a public open examination called "Vestibular", which usually lasts 1–2 days and takes place once a year. Some universities may run Vestibular twice a year, for two yearly intakes instead of only one. This option is popular with private universities, while public universities usually run Vestibular only one time every year (in November, December or January). Universities offer a limited number of places, and the best qualified candidates will be seleted for entrance. Vestibular consists of a long examination on high school subjects, including Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Literature, Portuguese language, and a foreign language, usually English. Since public universities are totally free of charge, competition at the Vestibular is usually fierce for a place in a public university.

Recently some universities in Brazil started accepting students according to performance during school and a new entrance examination was designed by the Education Ministry and adopted by most public universities, ENEM (which stands for Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio). Both ENEM and "Vestibular" will co-exist in the future.

Grading system

There is a myriad of grading systems in Brazil, of which the most popular are:

• Percentage point grading system (range 0–100%)
• Scale grading system: ranges from 0 to 10 (rationals), being 0 the worst and 10 the best grades respectively
• Stage grading system: usually uses letters ranging from A (best) to E (worst)

Below a summary of the grading systems:

- "A": 90–100% (Excellent)

- "B": 80–89% (Very good)

- "C": 70–79% (Good)

- "D": 60–69% (Satisfactory)

- "E": < 50% or < 60% (Failing grade)

Usually the lowest passing grade in Brazil represents a 6 or a 7 (6 or 7 out of 10 / 60% or 70% / a "C" or a "D"), but some universities adopt a 5 or 50% as the minimum passing grade.

Universities are free to choose their grading system.

Exams

Exams are conducted by the professors and are decentralized, meaning that every professor is responsible for scheduling, applying and scoring exams. In contrast to some other countries, there is no equivalent in Brazil of centralized university departments in charge of scheduling and grading exams.

Public and private universities

Public universities usually offer the best quality education, and therefore competition during the Vestibular is fierce. Public universities will usually run courses all-day long, while private universities will offer a mix of all-day long and night-only courses. The latter is increasingly a popular way for working people to complete higher education in Brazil. Some public universities have lately introduced some night-only courses, whereas some day-courses may still be required.

Even though public universities offer the best quality education as well as research, there is a continued complaint from those institutions that they are underfunded. Private universities tend to have better and newer infrastructure (e.g. buildings and campi) than public funded instituons, even though these also tend to be smaller when compared to the ones from public universities.

There are currently over 2600 public and private universities between distributed throughout Brazil, this number is growing increasingly more time with the proper education / university that the country is experiencing.

Rankings

See Brazil university rankings

Niches of excellence

Brazil presents some niches of excellence in higher education, both public and private. Some of those niches, in spite of being recognized nationwide, are not recognized as universities and often do not appear on official universities rankings. The best known examples are Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), a college sponsored by the Brazilian military, and whose graduates often are later employed at the Brazilian Aerospace Industry and by Embraer; Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME), the Army's older equivalent; and Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), a foundation/think tank offering Management and Economics courses, and recognized as being one of the finest institutions nationwide.

Gallery

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  UFSC

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  UFRGS

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  UFPR

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  UFRJ

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  IME

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  ITA

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  USP

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  Unisinos

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  Unicamp

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  UnB

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  FGV

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  UFV

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  UFPE

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  UFCSPA

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  UFABC

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  UFRRJ

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  UTFPR

See also

• Undergraduate education in Brazil
• Graduate degrees in Brazil
• Bachelor's degree in Brazil
• CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development)
• Lattes Platform (database for indexing Brazilian research and researcher CVs)
• Brazilian science and technology
• Ministry of Education (Brazil)
• Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
• INEP (National Institute for Research in Education)
• Education in Brazil

External links

• Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação, or "MEC"): http://www.mec.gov.br (In Portuguese)

• National Institute for Research in Education (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais, or "INEP"): http://www.inep.gov.br/ (In Portuguese)

• Graduate Coordination Body (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, or "CAPES"): http://www.capes.gov.br/ (In Portuguese)

• National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, or "CNPq"): http://www.cnpq.br/english/cnpq/index.htm