Fies and Prouni in the expansion of Brazilian higher education: policies to democratize access and/or to promote the private-mercantile sector?

This article aims to analyze the higher education expansion public policies in Brazil, in the period between 1990 and 2015, especially through the Fies and Prouni Programs (2003-2015). Both federal programs contributed to the process of democratizing higher education, but, at the same time, they promoted the growth of private higher education institutions and to the consolidation of a higher education market in Brazil. The authors argue that it is a process of commodification of higher education, which has been challenging the historical treatment of higher education as a public good and a social right.