Abstract

MANCEBO, Deise. Pandemic and Higher Education in Brazil. Rev. Elet. Educ. [online]. 2020, vol.14, e4566131.  Epub Oct 29, 2020. ISSN 1982-7199.  https://doi.org/10.14244/198271994566.

The text discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Brazilian higher education. To this end, an exploratory investigation is undertaken that involves a literature review, systematic research of the alternative press, and documental analysis of converging issues required to gain an understanding of the topic, as well as reference to existing aggregate data, constituting an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative aspects simultaneously. It is broadly organized as follows: first, an analysis of the country’s political and economic situation when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, considering that the economic and public health impacts of the spread of the virus depended on pre-existing weaknesses and cracks. The analysis focuses on details of the way the pandemic has been tackled in Brazil, notably the denial of basic precepts of public health and science, which is the hallmark of Bolsonarism. It goes on to investigate the realm of higher education, organizing the arguments around an analysis of two key factors for this discussion: the impacts of ultra-neoliberalism and of neoconservatism on Brazil’s higher education establishments. The analysis concludes with some considerations about what has changed at these institutions since the arrival of the pandemic and their prospects for the future.

Keywords : Pandemic; Higher education; Ultra-neoliberalism; Neoconservatism..

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