Brazil’s public higher education model is littered with issues. First, it is elitist: 40 percent of the students come from the wealthiest 20 percent of the population. It also doesn’t offer enough vacancies, with private universities making up 76 percent of all enrollments. And, finally, it’s expensive, consuming around 1 percent of the annual GDP, more than in countries such as the U.S. and Israel.
Even though public university students do not pay tuition fees and there are affirmative action mechanisms in place to offer places to black and low-income students, studying at one of these schools...
