Education in Brazil

Studying the world

A huge scholarship programme could boost economic growth

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Readers' comments



TomasBottel in reply to Coffee Cup

I think many people happily desert their home countries without an inch of remorse in favor of high salaries or/and an attractive partner with a great passport. See how many million Europeans immigrated to Brazil in the past i.e.
My building here in São Paulo is loaded with Europeans and sometimes their local partners are not even attractive at all...

TomasBottel in reply to

My main point is that Brazil could have millions and not just 100.000 government pupils.

Brazilian individuals, private businesses owners and professionals, produce enough to finance their own teams. They deserve an easier life. They worked more and pay more than most other nationalities for that.

Thats called MERITOCRACY.

The problem is that this PT government creates so many hazards and expenses to small businesses and professionals, they must spend their time and money to fix those issues and deal with extreme corruption, instead of investing in talent and innovation to remain competitive.

If a young student comes back to Brazil, from the best universities, and try to start a business here, he/she will find the same delusional bureaucracy, time waisting/useless procedures, wrecked infrastructure and state corruption among government pals everybody has to face now.

If they go overseas to search for logical science, they will come back to an "illogical science" here.

He/she would have two choices: to cry or to laugh of the situation.

Unless they belong to this government "family",then things start to get easier, much easier.
Lula himself is a really bad example, his son was a U$ 1,000.00 salary zoo keeper before his dad become president. Then he became a multimillionaire, big entrepreneur right after Lula got elected. He didn´t need to study in great universities, great universities are for fools, according to the "family tradition". When the press asked Lula what was going on, he answered:"My son is a Ronaldinho of businesses."
His son never gave a single interview in his entire life, imagine if you are starting a business, you know you will need all the media attention you could get. But his son never talked to the any media. Even Eike Batista, the richest Brazilian man ever is on the media full time, but Lula´s son "doesn´t need exposure"...
His other son works for the Corinthians football club, the same team building an 1 billion dollar stadium for the next World Cup.
Lula´s grandchild wants to be an actress and his daddies company got tax cuts in order to finance her play.

Talking about MERITOCRACY, the main reason every university in this planet exists, Dilma was chosen by Lula, she didn´t have to worry about her résumé. The same way she has chosen every single government player bases in friendship, loyalty etc... Her ex prison pals. They usually know nothing about the job they are being placing in, but they have "good friends."

Its all suspicious, based in their own backgrounds.

This is the second bold and clever initiative to bringing the 'B' in BRIC to the position of world leader that it deserves (the first being the 'salário família', by Lula). The emphasis is STEM, not wishy-washy subjects; only the top Universities abroad are part of the deal and it will bring a wave of expertise and new thinking to Brazil. It does not matter that there will be some 'leaks' in the pipe in the form of some high quality Academics being wooed to stay abroad. Many more will go back, and even those who decide to move to other shores will benefit Brazil, through their Academic and personal links back home. Great, bold programme indeed! I only hope she is as bold (and the purse deep enough) to create a programme to boost primary school education in Brazil as well (looking further into the horizon / planting trees...). Congratulations to Dilma and her team!


The reality is this government does that just to control smart pupils, by financing them.
Its not a bad business to the students, who had no choice after all.
But when you see the fields THE GOVERNMENT is choosing, its clearly a government plan to place them in state companies.
Tax payers will pay the expenses for the government pupils, thats old news.
Worse than this, is that all this fields have nothing to do with innovation, small and creative businesses. They are all related to huge companies, national champions, commodity business, political fields.
Small companies are responsible for 7 out of 10 jobs in Brazil. They pay more than 70% of all taxes. They will pay more than 70% of these expenses and get nothing back, as usual.
Had this government not failed to provide a less costly life to small businesses, there will be millions of Brazilian students abroad, from the middle class(because poor people in Brazil can´t even read in Portuguese), with an huge difference: the expenses would be paid by private companies and individuals. The results would be delivered in their own communities and not in state, corrupt companies, controlled by government friends.
Once again, something that looks cute, when you don´t know the Brazilian reality.

YgorC.S. in reply to iThinker

Really? It is funny then that the CIA Factbook states Brazil's emigration rate is only 0.09 per thousand inhabitants, that is, only 1 in 11,100 Brazilians leave the country every year. It is also funny that important newspapers from the US to Japan reported, in 2010 and last year, that thousands of Brazilians are going back to Brazil because there are better opportunities in their homeland now. It is also funny that Brazilians "leave the first chance they get", but until now, amidst the almost 200 million Brazilians, less than 3 million live abroad, i.e only 1.5% of the whole population. You are full of preconceived ideas of what Brazil is and terribly lacking in real information.

Connect The Dots

"In the 1960s and 1970s the government paid for PhDs abroad in oil exploration, agricultural research and aircraft design. Brazil is now a world leader in all three fields."

The success of the program involves adhering to specific technical fields. And having serious dedicated students in the STEM fields and not wish-washy majors.

Part of the problem of Western Universities is the lack of domestic talent that wants to commit to Math and Science discipline, Problem solving, severe thinking challenges, firm goals and competencies; and finally homework. Partying in Rio or at a party school is a too easy temptation.

It is a hard life with delayed gratification and self denial. And the Asian students seem to do better in the STEM fields. But maybe the Brazilians are just as hard working but have a false bravada party-reputation.

Christina0216 in reply to Coffee Cup

Yes, but with unemployement among educated people in Europe reaching 20% or worse, I don't imagine many people staying, even if they wanted to. Actually, nowadays is the other way around. And in twenty years I'm not sure what will be a "great" passport. in reply to TomasBottel

Dear Tomas
The students do have choice. They can choose to apply to Science Without Borders or not. The Brazilian government is choosing STEM and the government of Brazil insisted that only top Universities abroad are part of the deal. This will be good to Brazil. I do take your point on SMEs and the 70% in jobs and taxes you mention. But who is to say these students are not going to be in / create SMEs when they return? Also, when GDP grows all benefit (when it rains the water irrigates everybody's crops). I do think it looks cute. I believe it will work and I believe it will bring huge benefits to Brazil.


Brazil is a funny place: it forbids foreign universities of creating campuses here (which would serve to a much bigger number od students - plus generating local employment, taxes, etc), but then pays full schollarships (and travelling and acommodation expenses) for thousands to go abroad...

TomasBottel in reply to Dumontsnts

its "not really a lie":
- In Brazil there are 5,1 million companies(all sizes);
- 98% of all companies are classified as small companies;
- More than 66% of all companies are really small "family" business, formal and informal;
- 07 out of 10 workers work in small companies.

To foreigners:
Most of the taxes in Brazil are within the products and services prices, all paid buy the final customers. Thats why a car, an iphone, an internet connection, a liter of gasoline, a shirt, a banana etc... costs 2 or 3 or 10 times more in Brazil than in most developed nations, where the tax systems are "kinder" when you buy products and services.

If 07 out of 10 workers work in small companies, they spend the money or salaries they got from the small companies.

So if a big company pays "X" in taxes, they will charge "X + COST + PROFIT" from those small companies workers.

If workers from small companies buy products or services from small companies, they will also pay "X + COST + PROFIT", but 07 out of 10 workers got their money from small companies too.

Although the way I typed was confusing, in my 1st comment,my mistake, I was not lying at all.

The way Dumontsnts and YgorC.S. typed leads foreigners to think "90% of all taxes in Brazil are paid by big companies". Thats much worse than my mistake, cause thats definitely not true. in reply to Wladuk

Actually it is not "full fees" that are paid. The Economist got this part wrong. The package is US$ 15000 a year to cover University fees and accomodation, paid directly to the University, plus a maintenance stipend paid directly to the student. Universities in the UK and the USA will need to offer considerable fee discounts to accept the Brazilians. For instance, in the UK the typical fees for overseas students are around £15500 (US$ 24560) a year, and that is not including accomodation. But both the USA and the UK are embracing the scheme and accepting the Brazilians under the Science Without Borders programme because they lnow they are receiving good quality students. As for the going abroad, that is exactly what makes the experience of these students different, better. It is an eye opener. Ask in any University in Brazil. Go and ask the PhDs who completed their doctorate abroad what are the advantages. They will tell you.

Coffee Cup


What are the chances of falling in love with a cute indigneous european national and never returning to Brazil?

Just wondering. Many latin americans happily desert their home countries without an inch of remorse in favour of high salaries and an attractive partner with a great passport.


This is a great program. I have always been shocked at the overrepresentation of Asians in good English-speaking universities compared to Latin Americans (or Africans), and I hope families and companies start seeing the benefits too, not just the government.

I just hope this is a sustained program and not a prime candidate for axing when fiscal times are less benevolent. Lack of long term financial footing is the only thing that worries me about doing things as fast as Dilma is doing them.

But thumbs up for putting some competitive pressure to all those low-quality higher education programs in Brazil!


This program only shows the lack of vision and clear planning, and reveals how the Brazilians are ignorant about its own problems. Anyone who did his (her) PhD abroad knows that one year means near to nothing. Moreover, they still need to deal with his (her) advisor arrogance, ignorance and the arcane university system of Brazil. The Brazilian system to foster innovation, science and technology is a joke. It is as corrupt as it gets. For instance, they rank scientific productivity not by the relevance of scientific articles, but by how much a lab has published. Therefore, is near impossible to get grants from the Brazilian science agencies, since they give money only for senior scientists who are used to publish irrelevant scientific papers in fly-by-night scientific journals. Bureaucracy is another aspect of why it is impossible to innovate and generate science in a place like Brazil. It is a nightmare to buy chemicals or equipment to do research in Brazil. If you get luck, your scientific product will seat in the Brazilian Customs for near 6 months. Different from US and other develop nations; Brazil doesn’t have a system to absorb young scientists. In US, if you can get grants, a private university or research corporation will want to hire you. This is because part of the money goes for the university as indirect costs. Thus, fostering a virtuous cycle. Most of these problems are fixed by political will and by intelligent use of money. It seems that Brazilians do not have these characteristics.



It is true! More overwhelmingly is the fact that Dilma Roussef, frequently and ostensibly follows the same pattern which the military Government started and successfully concluded. Petrobras, Embrapa and Embraer, respectively the leaders in above mentioned fields. Dilma was a ferocious opponent of the military Goverment, a "brothers in arms" which was captured and sent to prison! Stockholm Syndrome???

sergioreis in reply to iThinker

I am Brazilin, and live in the US. Everyone wants to go back to what they belive was their home. The problem is that the country and the culture is completely disfunctional. 9 out of the 10 people that I have known who returned came back within 1 year ther remainder were unable to due to their leggal situation (most with degreees in the sciences)

If you have ever lived in Brasil you would understand that somehing as simple as getting government ID is complex and difficult. The governement greates beuocracy and complexities because it increases costs and creates opportunities for ever more ingenious ways to siphon monies.

Most wealthy brasilians dream og living in miami hence the rush to buy property by brasilians. Miami was voted in forbes as the most miserable city in the US, that is the brasilian dream.


I would not be mistaken to assume that the Author and the fine commenters of this article enjoyed, or are certainly to enjoy, David McCullough's The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (Thorndike Press, 2011). Although some of today's Americans show little enthusiasm for France, or Europe in general, during the 19th century many artists, physicians, educators, and scientists sought to broaden their intellectual horizons in Paris and other European cities. And their international experience ended up having a huge impact on different fields of human endeavor, in their own country and eventually elsewhere.

Brazil, like other nations, is intensifying its efforts to give its professionals a chance to do graduate work abroad. According to institutions that for decades have provided Brazilians with fellowships abroad, such as the National Research Council, CAPES, and FAPESP, the large majority of Brazilian fellows return to Brazil upon completing their studies in foreign universities. The relatively small number of Brazilians that remain abroad frequently cooperate with Brazilian institutions or help younger fellow countrymen studying abroad. It is a win-win program, very different from some initiatives designed to enrich the few to the detriment of the many who do pay taxes.


As a teacher working at a Brazilian Federal university I see mostly benefits from this scheme. Most importantly for the student going abroad this will undoubtedly broaden their personal horizons. Brazilian further education has no emphasis on the development of the individual like many other countries, and quickly narrows the outlook of the students to a knowledge and interest of only their chosen subject. All study no wisdom.
Secondly, my understanding is that for undergraduates, who I suspect will make up the majority of these scholarships. Participation only counts as a part of a sandwich course. ie the overseas part of their education needs to be within their Brazilian degree, and they need to complete the degree in Brazil. So less chance of the brain drain feared by other respondents of this article.


Brazilians are known for their Carnivale and Ipanima beach, not for their brains. The ones who do have a brain leave the first chance they get because of their children's education and future. I know quite a few Brazilian transplants. All are bright and fun to be around, though struggling mightily with English. None are thinking of going back. Most likely these scholarship recipients won't go back either after receiving their education. The Brazilian taxpayers are paying for other countries' future knowledge workers.


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