Higher Education in Brazil. 1. From Independence to the Military Coup of 1964

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of higher education in Brazil from independence until the military coup of 1964, approaching the following events: the influence of the University of Coimbra and the lack of universities throughout all of the 19th c. owing to the role of the Professional Schools and the influence of positivist thought; the beginning of an important debate about the need to create universities to coalesce and transmit Brazilian culture after the founding of the University of Rio in 1920; the centralization of educational policy and the importance of the model of the University of Rio, now the University of Brazil, which took place during the Estado Novo; and the democratization process that reopened the debate on higher education, with the added problem of responding to new economic needs. The period analyzed closes with the founding of the University of Brasilia and with the considerations of President Goulart regarding educational reform as one of the “basic reforms” needed. The military coup in 1964, however, marked the beginning of a very different period in the history of the country.