In a public consultation, MEC suggests vetoing EaD for 16 undergraduate courses

The Ministry of Education (MEC) opened a public consultation this Thursday (19) to hear from entities and experts about the regulation of distance education in higher education. In six statements, the body suggests penalties for institutions with low quality and the prohibition of distance learning (EaD) for 16 undergraduate courses. Access the public consultation here.

The first proposal is to allow only higher education organizations with a score of 4 in the CI-EaD, an index that assesses the quality of the institution (the maximum score is 5), to be accredited or re-accredited to offer courses in the distance learning modality. The second concerns a two-year waiting period to file a new request for accreditation in the distance learning modality for institutions that did not achieve grade 4.

Thirdly, the MEC proposes that institutions with a grade lower than 4 on the CI-EaD are prohibited from opening new classes, losing their accreditation for the EaD modality when existing classes are completed.

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Fourthly, the MEC suggests that only courses with mandatory practical activities, internships, activities and the like that correspond to less than 30% of the workload provided for in the National Curricular Guidelines can offer distance learning courses. In this sense, in the fifth affirmative, the MEC says that this decision would imply a ban on offering the distance learning modality for courses in Law, Nursing, Dentistry, Psychology, Biomedicine, Religious Sciences, Physical Education (bachelor’s degree), Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy , Geology/Geological Engineering, Medicine, Nutrition, Oceanography, Public Health and Occupational Therapy.

Lastly, if the 30% rule is followed, courses with these characteristics operating in EaD format today would have a maximum period of six months to register new students, and only the classes should be kept in progress so that all enrolled people close their enrollments, either by completion, or by withdrawal of their own free will.

The MEC created this consultation after receiving the report from a working group created by the body to analyze the quality of distance learning and its dizzying growth in recent years. According to the latest Higher Education Census, from Inep, the number of places in courses in this modality grew by 139.5% in the last four years, going from 7.2 million in 2018 to 17.2 million in 2022.