From public commitment to mercantile mimeticism: the case of the community model in brazilian higher education

Abstract

Community institutions of higher education (ICES) are civil society organizations. The law defining them, established in 2013, states that these institutions are equivalent to public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in terms of access to funding calls and public resource transfers. However, in practical terms, these legal advancements have not had significant effects. In a context of academic capitalism, Brazilian higher education has become a profitable business, with a concentration of enrollments in a few commercial HEIs that offer low-cost courses, predominantly through distance education. This creates a competitive scenario within the private sector, contributing to the crisis of the community segment, which seeks to reposition itself. The article tests the hypothesis that this repositioning is characterized by a mimetic isomorphism movement of ICES towards the for-profit private segment (FPP). The results of research using microdata from the Higher Education Census of 2015, 2019, and 2022 are presented, comparing ICES with FPP and public institutions. Although the analysis has limitations due to the available information, it was possible to find the referred mimicry, with emphasis on indicators such as the decline in on-site enrollments and the investment in distance education, as well as the significant participation of hourly-paid professors in the composition of the faculty. However, coercive isomorphism was also observed, where institutions similarly adapt to state evaluation and regulation processes, particularly in indicators related to the qualification and partial and full-time employment of the faculty