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LCSHD Paper Series Department of Human Development

InstitutionalDifferentiationand the Accommodationof Enrollment Expansionin Brazil

D. BruceJohnstone

November 1998

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The World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office

HumanDevelopmentDepartment LCSHDPaper SeriesNo. 29

Institutional Differentiation and the Accommodation of Enrollment Expansion in Brazil

D. Bruce Johnstone

November1998

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Table of Contents

Page No.

Introduction Institutional Differentiation

1........................................ ........................................................

3

Differentiation of mission ...................................................

3

Academic Drift: Gravitation toward the "University" End of the Mission Continuum ........................... .............................

6

Differentiation Between or Within Institutions .............

8

.....................

Differentiation of Institutions by Relationship to Government .......

........

9

Ownership...................................................

9

Control by government ................

9

Level or Branch of government control ........................

................

Reliance on governmental revenue . ............................................ Typology of Higher Education Institutions in Brazil ...........

.................

Enrollment Expansion ......................................................... 1. 2. 3. 4.

Recommendations on Institutional Differentiation for the Accommodation of Enrollment Expansion in Brazil ............

10 11 13

The Reform Agenda .................................................... The Modernization Agenda ................................................. The Growth Agenda ................................................... The Democratization Agenda ...............................................

Enrollment Expansion and Institutional Differentiation .........

9

13 13 14 14 ..............

15

.................

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Introduction Higher educationin Brazil is approachinga crossroads.The old model, a publiclyfunded system for the few, is centered on an elite and will not serve the country's needs in the 21st century.The Governmentof Brazil,with the WorldBank's cooperation,is exploring a range of alternativesthat addressthe most critical issuesin Brazilianhigher education: * Increasing Coverage: A demographic bulge of young Brazilians is reaching

university age. They will have more high school diplomas and higher educational aspirations than any previous generation. The current system provideseducationfor less than 10 percent of the age cohort and is ill-equipped to meet the growing demands. To respond to this challenge, the higher educationsystem will have to become more diverse,higher quality, and less expensive. * Restructuring Funding Mechanisms to Support Institutional Autonomy and Incentives for Efficiency. Rigidities throughout the higher education system

have institutionalizeda system whose costs are on par with those of OECD countriesbut whose quality is not. A reexaminationof funding and regulation mechanisms,and the incentivesthey create, is criticalto improving qualityand efficiency. *

The Role of the Federal Government: Provider, Funder, and Regulator of Higher Education. The last major reform of higher education took place in

1968. Currently, federal support for higher education is channeled almost exclusivelyto federal universities (and overwhelminglyfor salaries). Little consideration has been given to the appropriate roles of the federal governmentin a diversifiedhigher educationsystem. * Quality of Instruction. Quality assurance system at the institutional and national levels are weak, rigid, and politicized. They do not encourage diversityor flexibilityof the curriculum. - Stakeholders: The Political Realities of Change. Many of the systemproblems are well known and widely discussed within Brazil. Opponents to changein the higher communitycome from the country's most capable and politically mobile/influentialgroups and are often fortified by strong legal (even constitutional)and bureaucratic protection. Any viable policy change must strategically deal with potentially strong and well-organized political opposition. The eight papers in this series are a systematic examinationof the problems and policy optionsfor Brazilianeducation. This paper, by Bruce Johnstone, addresses the topic of institutional differentiation,or dimensions of institutional variation, and how this differentiation impacts enrollmentcapacity, or the ability of a national system taken as a whole to accommodate a large anticipated expansion of enrollment. This paper specifically addresses the topic in reference to Brazil in the late 1990s. It draws on theory and experience from the international comparative study on higher education from the

2 perspectives of economics, finance, governance, and public policy.' In addressing higher education in Brazil, this paper has been informed by secondary source material in English, much of it provided by the World Bank, but has not been informed by primary source materials or by in-country experience.

Donald Winkler Lauritz Hohm-Nielsen

'The author is a UniversityProfessorof HigherandComparativeEducationat the StateUniversityof New York at Buffalo, wherehe specializesin the economics,finance and governanceof higher educationand teaches and writesabout comparativehighereducation.He has writtenabout andworked in Russia,China, and Europe, but has not traveled to Brazilor elsewherein Latin America.He has servedas presidentof the State UniversityCollege at Buffalo and as chancellorof the State Universityof New York system.As a chancellorhe had authorityover 59 highly differentiatedcampuses,from researchuniversitiesto two-year communitycolleges,with some 400,000studentsanda consolidatedbudgetof more than $5 billion.

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InstitutionalDifferentiation Universitiesand other institutions of higher education, in Brazil and elsewhere, differ in several important ways. From the perspective of public policy attempting to accommodate enrollment pressures, the most important aspect is differentiation in institutional mission and the several institutionalvariables that follow from, or are a function of, institutional mission. By "mission" is meant the larger purpose of the institutional,which in turn drives the programs,the kinds of studentsattracted,the kinds of faculty appointed and the expectations upon them, and the way the institution is assessed(or would be assessed).

Differentiation of mission: An institution'smission can be aspirational,purported or actual. That is, what the institution is trying to be; what the faculty, students, and leaders wish it to be thoughtof; and what it most nearly is to the unbiasedobserver.The mission of an institutionof higher educationmay be best thought of on a continuum, rangingfrom a primaryorientationtowards scholarshipand advancedtraining associated with the classical researchuniversity to an orientationtowards accessibility,vocational training, and the short-cycleprograms associatedwith what are sometimesreferred to as non-university institutions.The term binary line is used to describe national systems where all institutionsof higher education are formallyclassified as either university or non-university-the latter designation including, for example, the German Fachhochschulen,the French instituts universitairesde technologie (IUTs), the Dutch HBO, most of Japanese private institutions, and those Brazilian public and private institutionswithoutofficialuniversity designation. However,this nomenclatureis becomingout of date-and almostdysfunctional-for several reasons. First, as stated above, institutions are more accurately portrayed along a continuum-or even better, along a series of continua, describing various institutional characteristics or dimensions. Most institutions in most countries lie somewhere between the extremes of the classical, research-oriented,Humboldtian university and the exclusivelyshort-cycle,teaching-and vocationally-orientedcollege or institute, as shown in Figure 1. In the UK, for example,the former polytechnics,once officially non-university,are now classifiedas universities,but are requiredto compete for and earn the resources that may actually lead them to the scholarly distinction associated with those institutions that have long born that designation.In the US, the community colleges are clearly non-university,except that most of the coursework is transferableto a universityfirst degree (the baccalaureate).Many able studentsbegin at these colleges for reasons of cost and convenience,transferring to universities after completingthe two-yeardegree.The US public comprehensiveinstitutions(called either colleges or universities)as well as most of the baccalaureate(mainly private) colleges also resemble the Europeannon-universitiesin the absence of advanceddegreesand the largely teaching orientationof the faculty. However,some of the private baccalaureate colleges enroll decidedlyelite student bodies, most of whom go on to obtain advanced degreesin universities,as well as facultywho publishextensively.Similarly,many of the comprehensive colleges give masters degrees, some even grant doctorates (largely

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professional doctorates in education), and most of the faculty conduct research and publish. To further complicatethe distinction betweenuniversity and non-universityin the US, most universities,both public and private,give substantialemphasisto teaching (even at remedial levels), community service, applied scholarship,and even to shortcycle training.2

Mission is also a proxy for a number of important related variables on which institutionsof higher educationtypically vary, most frequently,as for missionitself along continua.These dimensionsinclude: * * * * * * * * *

Dominantknowledgeorientation. Expectedstudents'required academicpreparednessand interest. Expectedfaculty's requiredacademicand scholarlystandards. Expectedand rewardedfaculty orientation. Degree of prestigeaccordedto the institution,faculty, and graduates. Dominantdegreeprograms. Duration of studiesand full- or part-timecommitmentof the students, Dominantformof internalgovernance. Typicalper-studentcost of instruction.

These variables and their associated continua are summarized in Figure 1. A numberof important related dimensions of institutionalvariation track closely with the mission and with each other. For example, prestige is associated with scholarly reputation,which is gained through research and the training of advanced students who are engaged in longer-term study, (usually) in more theoretical disciplines. A research

orientation,althoughrelevantmainly to advanceddoctoraltraining in the arts and science disciplines, is associated with high entry standardsfor undergraduateor first degree studentswho will likely have little associationwith the prestigiousprofessors,but will reap the rewards of a high-statusdegreelargelybecauseof these high entry standardsand the all-important signal to the outside world of their required intelligence, academic preparedness, ambition, and probable social background.All of presumed value to employers,future friends,and mates.

Burton Clark describesthe bluning of the traditional "teaching-research"distinction,with institutions formerlyfocusedon one or the otherend "drifting"toward"someof each" in the middle.See Clark (1995) Placesof Inquiry.Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress. 2

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Figure 1 Universityand non-University: The Continuaof InstitutionalMissionVariation Continua -

Dimensionsof MissionVariation Dominant

ResearchUniversity HumboldtianTradition Theoretical, scholarly,

+

Knowledge broadlygeneralizable Orientation Students'Required High:rigorousacademic AcademicStandards secondaryschool preparation Faculty's Required Terminaldegreein field: AcademicStandards doctorateor equivalent Expected& Rewards & time oriented to RewardedFaculty researchand scholarship Behavior Image of Prestige& High

------------------------------

Non-University:Practical& Short-CycleOrientation Practical,vocational, Immediatelyuseful Mediumto low: can be less Than academicsecondary School Master's or lesser Degree Rewards & time orientedto Teaching Medium to low (relativeto

Status

University)

DominantDegree Programsor Courses Durationof Programs

Arts andsciences& advanced professional (law, medicine) Long (typically4- to 7-year < first degrees)

Time Commitment

Typicallyfull-timestudy

Business,human services, Entry technical(computer programs) Short: may feature certificates and diplomasof less than 1 year

(full or part-time)

DominantFormof Governance

Typicallypart-timestudy .

Curriculum& rector selectiondominatedby

More bureaucraticmanagementdomination

faculty Typical

High

Medium to low

InstructionalUnit cost Programsof study or degreesvary by disciplineor occupationalfield, by level of study (first, second, or advanceddegree), and by the dominant learning goals (whether heavily theoreticalor more applied).These track closely with the other dimensionsof institutionalvariation associatedwith the university vs. non-universitydistinction.For example,programswill vary by prestige, cost of delivery,and attractivenessto students. An institutionseeking to raise its prestige and to be perceived as more "scholarly" is likely to emphasize the traditional arts and science disciplines and the classical professions of law and medicine. An institution not likely ever to attain genuine university status might be more cost-consciousand seek fields of study that can be taught (and presumablylearned) in large lecture formats, with little or no specialized equipmentand with inexpensiveadjunct professors. Finally, an institutionthat must

6 work to maintain enrollment-generally meaning one that is minimally selective and that attracts students on the basis of location, service, and program rather than prestigewill present the programs with greatest student demand (although generally also mindful of costs), regardless of future employment prospects or the social need for more practitioners. Tracking closely with differences in program, prestige, and primary orientation of

the faculty is the dimension of student orientation, or institutional market niche. Institutions that choose, or for some reason are required, to locate on the non-university end of the institutional mission continuum, will generally appeal more to less academically and/or socially ambitious students. They might be less academically able, perhaps as a result of early schooling or the academically non-supportive influence of peers or family. But they also might be simply less drawn to theoretical subjects, or more drawn to vocations that require applied training in which university training is of little (or negative) value, or-and this is closely tied to public policy-their institutional preferences may be a function of both academic preparedness and family financial resources. Not being academically strong enough to be admitted to the prestigious free universities, and not being financially able to afford the best alternatives. The barrier may be tuition fees for private institutions, or high living costs from the need to live away from home) for the alternative public institution. So, they' are relegated to the institution closest to home-which may just happen to be a college or institute with less prestige and less value in the job market.

Academic Drift: Gravitation toward the University End of the Mission Continuum Institutions of higher education are neither neutral nor stable with regard to where on this continuum their mission is positioned. For reasons that are partly natural (a human inclination toward prestige), partly historical/cultural (the historic origins of the classical universities), and in part a function of policy (governmental rewards, whether intended or not, that favor the classical research model relative to all others), there is an almost ineluctable gravitation toward the scholarly-research end of the mission continuum. Institutions want to be thought of as universities, frequently as more scholarly and well regarded than they really are. And if they are not presently particularly scholarly, it is thought to be proper to aspire to become more so by acquiring permission to offer more advanced and prestigious programs, attracting a more academically prepared student body, inducing more scholarly behavior from the faculty, or by attempting to change the institution's designation politically by governmental edict. The Brazilian university, like the French university on which it was largely modeled, has traditionally been more of a teaching institution than a center of

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Theremayas wellbe a gendereffect,as parentsmaybe lesswillingto spendtheirmoneyto supporta

daughteraway fromhome than to supporta son.

7 4 Althoughreforms in the 1960sattempted to raise scholarlyqualifications scholarship. 5 , most universityfaculty are still of the faculty and scholarly output of the universities withoutterminal degrees,and the researchproductivityof most universities(except for a few that do international quality research, mainly in Sao Paulo and Rio) is low. To describe Brazilianhigher education the 1980's, Verhine wrote in 1992: "the generally low qualificationsof teaching personnel,the lack of effective faculty evaluation, the virtual impossibilityof employee firing, the absence of incentives for research and publishing, and the need for many in the [professorate] to hold down additional employmentto meet income expectationshave led to a major internalcrisis.'6

Any attemptto turn institutionsthatformally considerthemselvesuniversitiesinto anything less (which is how the impositionof a non-universitydesignationwould be seen) would be made with great resistanceand would probablyfail. However, as the American experiencehas shown for years, and the British experiencehas shown since the abolition of the binary line that once separated their universities from the polytechnics,a very substantialand useful differentiationcan co-existwithin the formal universitydesignation.Care is taken to resist academicdrift toward the faculty roles and rewards associated only with research universities. With most Brazilian universities already operating primarily as teaching institutions, little seems to be gained from "taking on" the designationof university.Instead,public policy oughtto concentrateon freeing public institutions from the rigidity of the federally imposed teaching expectationsand other "terms and conditions"for both faculty and staff. Likewise, it should fund programgrowth principally(but not exclusively) on the practical, shortercycle end of the mission continuum.

Robert E. Verhine (1992) "Brazil" in Philip G. Altbach, Ed., InternationalHigher Education:An EncyclopediaVol.J. NewYork: GarlandPublishing,p. 887. 5 It shouldbe noted that these reform efforts,while partly successful,came aboutat the time of the military dictatorshipthat also took away many of the academicfreedomsso essentialto the classicalHumboldtian researchuniversitytradition. 6 Verhine,p. 892. 4

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Differentiationbetweenor within Institutions The last point suggests another variation on the theme of differentiation. Institutions of higher education,especiallythose of substantialsize and those that are predominantlyresearch-oriented,can differentiatewithin. That is, the non-university function can be addedto or incorporatedwithin an existing researchuniversity,without having to create a separateinstitution.An exampleof institutionsthat incorporateboth the university and the non-university functions are those French universities that incorporate all of the traditional university mission7 along with the non-university Instituts Universitairesde Technologie(IUT). However,althoughthesetwo institutions share some space and formal governingauthority,they are less successfulin sharing faculty and courses.The IUTs have acquiredsome status not generallyassociated with non-university institutions, by virtue of having entry standards beyond the mere possessionof secondaryacademic leavingcertificateor Baccalaureate.In a kind of role reversal, the French university is the institution with more nearly-openadmissions (being forced to accept all studentswith a Bac), whereas some of the IUTs have been able to carry out a kind of selectivityprocess. In fact, the French have adopted quite another model to contend with students who are less motivated for the traditional university first degree.This is a two-yeardegree(DEUG)that allowssuch studentsexit gracefully--althoughfew seem to be taking advantage of this opportunity. Another attempt to combineboth ends of the mission continuumin a single institution is the German Gesamthochschule,which was devised to combine the classical German university with some of the programs and orientationsof the newer Fachhochschulen. While the idea seems to be working where it has been adopted, the model is not spreading to the otherstates. The problemwith combiningbroad missionvariation in a singleinstitutionis the difficulty of combining fruitful partnership elements with such disparate levels of prestige and assumedrewards--to faculty and student alike. Thus, the more practical, teaching-oriented,non-universityelementsmay remain on the periphery,gaining little from the consolidationand having faculty chaffing unhappily under larger teaching loads. On the other hand, institutions may try to emulate the university faculty and programs, losing every reason for creating the practical, teaching-orientedprograms. However, in the large numberof BrazilianUniversitiesthat are alreadyin the middle of the mission continuum,it might be possibleto expand the more practical,shorter-cycle programs by tying faculty rewards to such programs or to non-universityproxy indicators, such as shortertime to graduation,teachingperformance,and enrollment of studentscarryingneed-basedaid.

' Most of the nationalresearchfunction is assigned to the independentNational Scientific Research Centers, or CNRS,not to the Frenchuniversities.

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Differentiationof Institutionsby Relationshipto Government Institutionsof higher educationmay also be differentiatedaccordingto several dimensionsof reliance on, or relationshipto, govermment.These several continuaare associatedwith publicness or privateness" They are only loosely related to mission. Threeprincipaldimensionsof variationare the following: Ownership:Ranging from the clearly public, to the private non-profitand to the private for-profitor proprietary(or in the case of Brazil,the entrepreneurialinstitution that is nomninally non-profitbut that exists for the clear purpose of profit throughways otherthan paymentof dividends.) Controlby government:Rangingfrom the high degreeof control associatedwith a governmentalagency to the relative freedom to operate associated with a private enterprise.The high control,or governmentagency,end of the continuummight include direct control procedures over all institutionalexpendituresand contracts, and perhaps even the authorityof the governmenthead to directly appoint and remove top-level administrators,in a ministry or agency.In the middle of the continuummight be control by a publicly-appointedboard or bufferagency, like a university grants commissionor an appointedor elected governingboard, subject ultimatelyto control by direct election or by the appointingauthorityof an electedofficial-but not quickly or (in theory) too overtly.At the private end would be an entity placed quite away from the authorityof the government-even though the institutionmight be operating under a public charter dependenton public revenues,and in facilitiesownedby the state. Level or Branch of governmentcontrol: The principal governmentalcontrolcan be federal, state (or provincial),or municipal-or possibly shared among these levels accordingto the prevailing nationaltenants of federalism.In the U.S. and Canada,for example,the federalgovernmenthas no authorityoverthe operation of any institutionof higher education(except for the very few that are federallyowned, such as the military serviceacademies).The federalgovernmenthas the regulatoryauthority it has over any organizationor entity, but none by virtue of the entity being an institution of higher education.Brazilianfederalismimpartsconsiderablyless sovereigntyto the constituent states than the U.S. Constitution to the American states. The Brazilian federal governmenthas "its own" institutions(35 of which are designatedas universities)and it allows states and municipalities,with federal permission,to form, fund, and control more than 150additionalpublic institutionsof highereducation. Multi-leveljurisdictionspresentsome problems,at least in theory. Whenthere are federal and state or provincialinstitutionsof higher education,and when all sovereignty lies clearly at the federal or central level, it is tempting for the federal governmentto choosethe smaller,high-prestigeend of the institutionalmission continuum,reinforcing or even exacerbatingthe disparitiesin prestige and fundingto the relative detrimentof

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those institutionsservingthe majorityof studentsand arguably even the most important role in the economy.Also, whenfinancial responsibilityis shared betweentwo levels of govermment, each level has an incentiveto be the least and the last. Becausethe federal level of government is usually the strongest, it will attempt to push financial responsibilitydown to the states or regions and, at the same time, retain the ability to "top up" funding where it chooses. Both levels can evade responsibility(especially funding responsibility),claimingthat any deficiencyis due to the failure of the other level. Reliance on governmental revenue: Institutions in all countries vary considerablyin their reliance on govermental or public revenue, as opposedto nongovernmental revenue. The principal sources of non-governmental revenue for institutionsof higher educationare the following: * Studentsand parents-through tuition, fees, and full-cost recovery of institutionallyprovidedroom and board; * Sales of faculty and other institutional services-through sponsored research contractsor the provisionof specializedtrainingto individuals, firms,or government agencies;and Philanthropists-throughindividual,business,and foundation donations. Thesevariationsare summarizedin Figure2. Universitiesand otherinstitutionsof higher education can be publicly owned-which would be the most unequivocal determinationof public status--andyet quite reliant on non-governmentalrevenue through the charging of high tuition and full cost-recoveryof institutionally-provided room and board. They could also be given substantialmanagerial autonomy,perhaps through a publicly appointedbuffer governingboard. Conversely, institutionsof higher education can be unequivocallyprivately owned, yet subject to heavy governmental regulations-e.g., on the chargingof tuition or the compensation of faculty and staff. They may also be highly dependant on governmentalrevenue either through direct institutionaloperating grants, or through the device of tuition grants or vouchers that channel public financial assistance through students. In the former example, the universitywould be nominallypublic, yet substantiallyprivate; and, in the latter, the institution may be legally private, yet virtually indistinguishable from a public university. Brazil's public universities are heavily governmentally controlled-from the appointmentof rectors to the compensationand terms of employment for faculty and staff. Brazil's large private higher education sector, ranging from a few institutions clearly at the research universityend of the mission continuumto the majoritynear the non-universityend, are subject to considerable governmental control. The Federal Council of Education (CFE) controls initial approval to operate as a university or college,the courses of studyor programsthat can be offered, and the maximumtuition

11 that can be charged.8 Throughthe 1960s,lesseningin the 1970s,and endingin the early 1980s, most of Brazil's private universitiesalso received substantialpublic operating subsidies,further reducingthe significanceof theirprivateness.By the 1990s,however, this operating supporthad been mainly eliminated,making the privateinstitutionsquite tuition dependent-no longer depending on public revenue, but still subjectto various public controlsincludingtuition. Figure 2 Variations in Relationshipbetween Institutions of HigherEducationand Government Dimension Variation

of High governmental; High Publicness --

Ownership

Mid Government Public and Private Continua -----

--

Clearpublic Ownership

Low Governmental; High Privateness ------

Ownershipby