Ensino superior privado : o conflito entre lucro, expansão e qualidade

Abstract

A presente pesquisa procura identificar e compreender quais os elementos que obstaculizam ou impulsionam a construção de uma universidade privada no Brasil. O problema central do trabalho consiste em verificar a possibilidade de construção de uma Universidade privada, sob pressão das forças do Mercado e do imperativo de um negócio voltado ao lucro, mesmo quando há a presença de um estrato acadêmico qualificado e, sobretudo, a presença decisiva do papel regulador do Estado. A análise e compreensão desse processo concernem a fenômenos imanentes de um contexto patrimonialista e de tradição cultural ornamental. A hipótese de trabalho considera que a construção de uma Universidade privada depende, não somente das forças do Mercado, do Estado, da eventual existência de um estrato acadêmico capacitado e motivado, mas, sobretudo, da política como instrumento facilitador de qualquer empreendimento privado. Também o trabalho tenta analisar sociologicamente a situação do ensino superior no Brasil e no Distrito Federal e descrever criticamente os processos de credenciamento da Faculdade Euro-Americana e do Centro Universitário Euro-Americano. Caracterizam-se as dificuldades fundamentais da institucionalização de um empreendimento privado de ensino superior bem como os limites e o papel regulador do Estado no ensino superior brasileiro, em função da cristalização histórica de um processo de privatização do Estado pelas classes dominantes. As Instituições Privadas de Ensino Superior, em virtude de seu caráter complementar e acessório ao "sistema" público e, acima de tudo, pela sua origem, via de regra, patrimonialista e sua total subordinação aos imperativos inerentes a um mercado agonicamente competitivo e dependente de financiamentos e benesses do Estado, têm remota probabilidade de tornarem-se universidades. _____________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT

This dissertation is an attempt to investigate and understand which factors favor and which ones hinder the process of institution building of a private university in Brazil.The main focus is to assess the possibility of building and developing a private university as a lucrative business, operating in a market.Government regulations to which higher education is subject are very strict and limit market competition. On the one hand such regulations severely limit initiatives on the part of the private institutions. On the other, they establish goals and requirements which are almost unattainable to private institutions because these have no access to government funds and subsidies. The analysis and understanding of this process have to take into account the patrimonialist context in which the Brazilian higher education system operates, marked by an "ornamental" cultural tradition. The working hypothesis considers that the building of a private University depends, not only on market forces and on the on the eventual existence of group of capable academic professionals who have the drive to get involved in institution building but, above all, on political connections and operations as tools to make large private education institutions viable. The work is also an attempt to analyze the situation of higher education from a sociological point of view in Brazil and in the national capital. This is done, in part, through a critical description of the overall situation of high education in Brazil and of the politico-bureaucratic government licensing process Faculdade Euro-Americana and Centro Universitário Euro-Americano had to go through. I make an attempt to point out the fundamental difficulties involved and institutionbuilding process of a private enterprise dedicated to higher education, as well as the limits and the regulatory role of the State in Brazilian higher education. This is so because of the historical crystallization of a process of privatization of the State machinery by the Brazilian ruling classes. Summarizing, private institutions of higher education have a very remote possibility of becoming universities, a process which, in Brazil, depends on very strict government regulation and licensing requirements. This is due to their complementary and accessory role to “the public system” [of higher education], and, above all, because of their traditonally patrimonialist origin and total subordination to the imperatives of agonizingly competitive market which makes them fully dependent on government financing and subsidies.