Universidade pública deve ser grátis para quem pode pagar?

Abstract

The Brazilian government offers over one million slots per year in free public universities. Nevertheless, higher education in Brazil is highly progressive. We analyze how the introduction of a tuition fee in public universities, levied upon those families that can afford it, alters the equilibrium in the higher education market. Such a tariff provides incentives for rich families to seek private education and facilitates the access of poor students to public universities. A small tuition fee generates social gains of at least R$100.000 (around five times per capita GDP) for every additional poor student that receives a public education.