Education for Brazil – a University Teaches Online

Around the world, some 72 million children are not in school. In emerging markets such as Brazil, higher education is often mainly confined to higher income classes. In general, young professionals from low and middle-income backgrounds have limited future prospects with regard to their professions.

Education policy is one of the core tasks of every government. Nevertheless, in most developing countries and emerging markets the budgets allocated for education are dramatically underfunded. What innovative educational approaches are there and what kind of support can be offered by, for instance, private educational institutions? What role can development finance institutions play in this context - for instance by financing private universities? Are people prepared to invest time in the evening and also money in their education and is it also of benefit to people with low incomes?

Taking the Brazilian private university Anhanguera Educacional Participações S.A. (AEDU) as an example, this workshop will explore these and related questions. AEDU is Brazil's leading private post-secondary educational institution. It operates universities and distance-learning centres mainly in small and medium-sized towns in the Sao Paulo region, but also in other parts of the country. Presently, Anhanguera has a total of 400,000 students, more than half of which attend courses in a regular classroom. For the distance-learning courses, classes are transmitted via satellite, thus reaching students throughout the country.

Room A/B
Hosted by Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG)