Transnationalization and commodification of higher education: examining some effects of academic capitalism (without risk) in Brazil - the private business expansion

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the process of commodification of higher education in Brazil, with a special focus on transnationalization and for-profit providers. Based on an approach of critical theory, as developed by Susan Robertson, Roger Dale, Immanuel Wallerstein, Sheila Slaughter, Larry Leslie and Pierre Bourdieu, presents the argument that the commodification of higher education was unlocked from the enactment of LDB 9394 (Law of Directives and Bases of National Education), in 1996, and catalyzed by federal programs such as PROUNI (University for all Program) and FIES (Higher Education scholarship fund), generating a kind of "academic capitalism without risk" in Brazil.