conflict of interests makes distance learning regulation difficult

Education Minister Camilo Santana said he will make “stricter and tougher” decisions in relation to distance learning degrees in the country. With several initiatives, the department has dedicated itself to the issue, but if it needs support from the Legislative Branch to implement measures it may encounter obstacles. Some parliamentarians have family members who own large higher education institutions, including the president of the Education Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. The Republican party itself, which has 41 federal deputies and 2 elected senators, also manages a private college.

In September, the MEC suspended the offering of Law, Dentistry, Psychology and Nursing courses in remote format for 120 days. The decision was made during the activities of the working group on the topic. The Distance Learning Pharmacy course was also suspended, but with no deadline for return. Camilo Santana considered the scenario “alarming and challenging”.

To listen to entities and experts, the MEC opened a public consultation on the topic, suggesting the prohibition of the distance learning modality for the four aforementioned courses and 12 others: Biomedicine, Religious Sciences, Physical Education (bachelor’s degree), Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy, Geology /Geological Engineering, Medicine, Nutrition, Oceanography, Public Health and Occupational Therapy. “The focus is on the quality of the offer and appreciation of the practical field of these courses”, stated the minister during the release of the 2022 Higher Education Census, last Tuesday (10).

Átila Lira (PP-PI), Professor Alcides (PL-GO), Lafayette de Andrada (Republicanos-MG), Misael Varella (PSD-MG) and even the president of the Education Commission, Moses Rodrigues (União-CE), are some of the parliamentarians have close relatives who own higher education institutions. Átila Lira’s aunt is the rector of Unifsa in Teresina (PI). Professor Alcides is the owner of Unifan, in Aparecida Goiás. Founded by Bonifácio de Andrada, father of deputy Lafayette de Andrada, the rectorship of Unipac and the presidency of Fupac and Funjobe (faculty sponsor) are occupied by the parliamentarian’s brother. Lael Varella, brother of parliamentarian Misael Varella, owns Faminas in Minas Gerais. Congressman Moses Rodrigues’ father owns Uninta, one of the largest private colleges in the municipality of Sobral, in Ceará. Except for Lafayette and Varella, everyone else makes up the Education Committee in the Chamber of Deputies.

In addition to the distance learning modality, which requires some activities to take place in person, Uninta, owned by Moses Rodrigues’ family, offers 100% digital degrees with courses such as accounting, administration, marketing, advertising, among others. The target audience for 100% digital courses are Brazilians who live abroad.

Faculdade Republicana, linked to the Republican Party, only offers the distance learning political science course, most likely because the college only obtained authorization from the MEC to offer distance learning in December 2022. The permission was signed by the federal deputy and president of the Marcos Pereira party (Republicanos-SP). Of the 41 federal deputies that make up the Chamber of Deputies, six are members of the Education Commission. In the Education Committee of the Federal Senate, the two senators from the party are part of it. Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF) as starter and Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS) as substitute.

When contacted by Gazeta do Povo, Moses Rodrigues, Átila Lira and Lafayette de Andrada denied the existence of any conflict of interest in their public activities due to their personal proximity to private higher education institutions. At the same time, they assured that they agree with the need to improve the quality of distance learning. Professor Alcides and the Republican party did not speak out until the publication of this report.

Distance learning has grown by 87%

Compared to 2014, the offer of distance learning undergraduate courses grew by 87%. Of the 23 million vacancies offered, only six million are in person. In relation to private institutions, 94% of admissions and 88% of enrollments are distance learning courses. A considerable growth that, according to Minister Camilo Santana, creates an “alarming and challenging” scenario in relation to quality inspection.

This is why Santana intends to implement guidelines on the quality of these courses. “I determined to Seres [Secretaria de Regulação e Supervisão da Educação Superior] to carry out special supervision on distance learning courses, so that we can review the entire regulatory framework. Our concern is not with the fact of having distance learning courses, but ensuring the quality of these courses that will be offered for professional training, considering that certain courses are impossible to take in distance learning”, commented the minister.

In the data presented by Inep, last Wednesday, another point that caught attention is the number of teachers who work in higher education. In 2022, the public network started to have more teachers than the private network, with private institutions being responsible for around 78% of the undergraduate courses offered. Delimiting for distance learning courses, the student-teacher ratio in public universities is 34 students per teacher, while in the private network the number reaches 171 students per teacher.

Professor Rodorval Ramalho, sociologist and professor at the Federal University of Sergipe, warns that working conditions in the private sector are generally degrading. Ramalho also comments that the modality is related to the reduction of costs and also to a disregard for degree courses at federal universities. “The focus here has always been on bachelor’s degrees, since the teaching elite in this system is more linked to research than to teacher training. As you can see, the challenges are many and the alternatives are complex,” he highlighted.

“Better than further regulating the segment, it would be more efficient to make the educational structures that offer vacancies more transparent, so that citizens demanding these services can have access to information that better guides them in their decisions”, suggested Ramalho. The expert also states that there is a transition to the hybrid teaching format, with the incorporation of technologies without the loss of face-to-face contact. “The Brazilian case is even more complex because it also involves structural adjustments in all other phases of education”, he reinforced.

Federal councils and private education associations participate in the debate

The OAB is completely opposed to offering Law courses completely remotely and celebrated the decision to suspend courses in the area in this modality. For the organization, there is a “precariousness in legal education in Brazil, reflected in the low approval rate of law graduates in the Unified Bar Exam”. For the president of the institution, Beto Simonetti, “students are led to invest in courses of any quality, a mere commodification of education”. Other councils such as the Federal Council of Dentistry, Psychology and Nursing have similar positions.

The Brazilian Association of Higher Education Supporters (ABMES) participated in the working group set up by the MEC to address the problems of remote undergraduate courses. In the same vein, there is Celso Niskier, president director of the entity: for him, it is necessary to fight for the quality of education. “We are winning the battle of quantity, democratization, access, we need to join forces in the fight to improve quality”, he reinforced.

The concern shown by the MEC regarding the quality of the courses is also shared by the National Association of Private Universities (Anup), according to a note. “But ANUP also considers it worrying that the lack of monitoring and evaluation — which allowed the deregulation and disorganization of the current offer — is followed by a disproportionate limitation of the use of technology as an instrument for delivering quality academic content.” The entity also stated that “regulating by looking at the past will be a mistake without return”, as it understands that this “will allow the multiplication of unregulated courses and the escape of students who prefer to meet the needs of employability and updating, leaving the MEC to preach in the desert”.