Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience

This article adopts an historical institutionalism perspective (Pierson, 2011; Pierson & Skocpol, 2002; Thelen, 2014). Its main goal is to understand the lasting dynamics and path dependency processes that constrain the impact of expanding access to higher education (HE) in changing the pattern...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elizabeth Balbachevsky, Helena Sampaio, Cibele Yahn de Andrade
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cogitatio 2019-01-01
Series:Social Inclusion
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1672
id doaj-57d48273dc4d44dbb39ac95063c1d0c1
record_format Article
spelling doaj-57d48273dc4d44dbb39ac95063c1d0c12020-11-24T21:17:00ZengCogitatioSocial Inclusion2183-28032019-01-017171710.17645/si.v7i1.1672916Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian ExperienceElizabeth Balbachevsky0Helena Sampaio1Cibele Yahn de Andrade2Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, State University of Campinas, BrazilCentre for Public Policy Studies, State University of Campinas, BrazilThis article adopts an historical institutionalism perspective (Pierson, 2011; Pierson & Skocpol, 2002; Thelen, 2014). Its main goal is to understand the lasting dynamics and path dependency processes that constrain the impact of expanding access to higher education (HE) in changing the pattern of social inequalities in a given country. To do this, the article will explore two different aspects of the impact of education on social inclusion: the dynamics associated with production and distribution of portable skills and competences, and the dynamics associated with social stratification. The study follows the experience of Brazilian HE over the last 15 years. In this period, the country experienced a rapid expansion, coming from a total undergraduate enrolment of 2.7 million in 2000 up to nine million in 2016. Nevertheless, the design of this expansion assumed a very conservative pattern. Following a well-ingrained domestic pattern, most of this expansion was absorbed by the country’s huge demand-driven private sector, and into less than half a dozen very traditional types of bachelor programs. Thus, the article argues that by failing to diversify, and by preserving old institutional hierarchies, expanding access to HE in Brazil has rendered less impact than one would expect on the country’s social inequalities.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1672accessBrazilcompetencesdiversificationdualizationeducationhigher educationskillssocial stratification
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Elizabeth Balbachevsky
Helena Sampaio
Cibele Yahn de Andrade
spellingShingle Elizabeth Balbachevsky
Helena Sampaio
Cibele Yahn de Andrade
Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
Social Inclusion
access
Brazil
competences
diversification
dualization
education
higher education
skills
social stratification
author_facet Elizabeth Balbachevsky
Helena Sampaio
Cibele Yahn de Andrade
author_sort Elizabeth Balbachevsky
title Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
title_short Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
title_full Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
title_fullStr Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
title_full_unstemmed Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience
title_sort expanding access to higher education and its (limited) consequences for social inclusion: the brazilian experience
publisher Cogitatio
series Social Inclusion
issn 2183-2803
publishDate 2019-01-01
description This article adopts an historical institutionalism perspective (Pierson, 2011; Pierson & Skocpol, 2002; Thelen, 2014). Its main goal is to understand the lasting dynamics and path dependency processes that constrain the impact of expanding access to higher education (HE) in changing the pattern of social inequalities in a given country. To do this, the article will explore two different aspects of the impact of education on social inclusion: the dynamics associated with production and distribution of portable skills and competences, and the dynamics associated with social stratification. The study follows the experience of Brazilian HE over the last 15 years. In this period, the country experienced a rapid expansion, coming from a total undergraduate enrolment of 2.7 million in 2000 up to nine million in 2016. Nevertheless, the design of this expansion assumed a very conservative pattern. Following a well-ingrained domestic pattern, most of this expansion was absorbed by the country’s huge demand-driven private sector, and into less than half a dozen very traditional types of bachelor programs. Thus, the article argues that by failing to diversify, and by preserving old institutional hierarchies, expanding access to HE in Brazil has rendered less impact than one would expect on the country’s social inequalities.
topic access
Brazil
competences
diversification
dualization
education
higher education
skills
social stratification
url https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1672
work_keys_str_mv AT elizabethbalbachevsky expandingaccesstohighereducationanditslimitedconsequencesforsocialinclusionthebrazilianexperience
AT helenasampaio expandingaccesstohighereducationanditslimitedconsequencesforsocialinclusionthebrazilianexperience
AT cibeleyahndeandrade expandingaccesstohighereducationanditslimitedconsequencesforsocialinclusionthebrazilianexperience
_version_ 1726014853841158144