This text analyzes the expansion of higher education in Brazil during a period that covers more than a half century, with emphasis on governments that follow the 1964 military coup until nowadays. It discusses the constant development of the private sector of higher education in the country, emphasizing its concentration process in large educational groups, configuring itself as oligopolies extrapolating national borders and expanding power by stock market operations. It furthermore discusses the role of the Brazilian State and its dubious performance to allow or facilitate the disordered development of the private sector in this field of vital importance to the nation.
Higher education; Oligopolization; Expansion