The article analyzes the recent phenomenon of commodification of Brazilian higher education, through the growth of for-profit Higher Education Institutes and the adoption of market strategies in the direction of financialization, oligopolization and internationalization. Following the international trend, in addition to the tactics adopted to attract demand, there have been changes within the business. Noteworthy are the professionalization of management and the transfiguration of universities and university centers into conglomerates or holding companies. Another strategy involves the partial sale of domestic institutions to foreign capital, both through acquisitions by private equity funds and through the IPO of education companies on the stock market. We conclude that the process of commodification is the central element in analyzing the limits and possibilities of public education policy and, at the same time, it is incompatible with the principles that guide the educational process.
higher education; commodification; for-profit institutions
