Estratificação horizontal na educação superior de Minas Gerais: diferenças regionais nos sistemas público e privado, nos graus acadêmicos e nas carreiras

Abstract

For the last thirty years, Brazilian higher education has gone from 1.5 to 8.3 million enrolments. Minas Gerais (MG) is the second state with the highest number of institutions and enrolments in higher education, and it went through the process of expanding, interiorising and diversifying this level of education, which was followed by the system’s internal segmentation: what is called horizontal stratification. Thus, you can observe such a problem in MG. Considering the state’s geographical inequalities, this study aimed at identifying and analysing where and to what degree the unequal chances of accessing and concluding Minas Gerais’ higher education occur. For this purpose, we used studies about horizontal stratification linked to the concept of intersectionality (CRENSHAW, 2002). We analysed data from the cohort of enrolled students in Minas Gerais’ presential courses in 2018, made available by the Censo da Educação Superior (Higher Education Census). Furthermore, we studied information regarding the students who were concluding presential courses from 2017 to 2018, gathered by Enade - Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes (Students’ Performance National Exam). Compared to other courses, we call attention to Medical School, since a person’s chance of concluding it is strongly associated with their social origin, with the prevalence of students from privileged social classes. Computing School and related areas were pointed out for the significant influence of gender in the chances of conclusion, with a strong presence of male students. We observed the quantitative advantage of both black and white women in private higher education, whereas white men prevailed in the public sector’s bachelor degrees. We also detected that it is more likely that black and white women and black men conclude teaching degree, compared to white men. However, the chances of concluding different areas/courses, compared to the possibilities of concluding a teach-training college, were less disparate between groups of race and gender in the public sector and the Northern regions of Minas Gerais. These areas, which were benefited by public policies of federal institutes’ interiorisation, have counteracted tendencies that took place in the South-Centre and the Triângulo Mineiro (Minas Gerais’ Triangle). In the North-Centre, in both public and private sectors, students’ social background was less privileged, and black students, especially black women, are present in higher proportions, including in more selective courses whose degrees are more economically and symbolically valued. Our results demonstrate that establishing public and private Higher Education Institutions and Federal Institutes in less economically developed regions contribute to diminishing horizontal stratification in the higher education system.