Expansão da educação superior a distância e a mobilidade pendular de estudantes para Belo Horizonte e para os cinco principais centros regionais do interior de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The fast expansion of Distance Learning (DL) in Brazil has provoked heated discussions that go beyond those related to teaching methods and quality. The flexibility observed in the offer of courses and the variety of this modality turned distance education into an alternative for the expansion of higher education. One of the impacts of the growth of distance education is on student spatial mobility. The state of Minas Gerais showed a significant growth in DL enrollments, even higher than the national rate in the period from 2005 to 2019. This work aims to assess the expansion of the offer of higher education at a distance and the commuting of students to Belo Horizonte and to the five main regional centers in the interior of Minas Gerais, considering the flows identified in the 2010 Demographic Census. Enrollment data, flow, and distances combined with the identification of the major road axes of Minas Gerais allowed us to assess how Belo Horizonte and the other five regional centers exert their centralities in relation to distance education modality.