Based on the public-private relationship context, this paper discusses higher education quality. It advocates that, in Brazil, educational policies have historically promoted restriction to public initiative and encouraged the private initiative for this education level. It considers both the national scenery and that of the Distrito Federal according to a study on a local group of higher education establishments. The discussion points out the different meanings and complexity of the concept of quality, the institutional heterogeneity of the Brazilian higher education system, and the centrality of the binomial evaluation/quality as a public policy for the sector.
Higher education; Quality; Public-private relationship; Distrito Federal
