Desde 2010, as instituições de ensino superior (IES) brasileiras comunitárias deixaram de figurar oficialmente nas sinopses e microdados do INEP sob essa denominação, com a extinção da categoria “comunitárias, confessionais e filantrópicasâ€. Desde então, as IES brasileiras privadas são classificadas conforme sua natureza jurÃdica: com ou sem fins lucrativos. A recente expansão da rede federal e de IES com fins lucrativos tem afetado diretamente as até então denominadas comunitárias, que possuem caracterÃsticas diferenciadas em relação à s IES privadas com fins lucrativos bem como as de ensino público. Neste artigo analisam-se dados e aspectos contemporâneos relacionados ao novo cenário da educação superior brasileira, com especial enfoque nas IES integrantes da Associação Brasileira de Universidades Comunitárias (ABRUC), tendo-se constatado melhor desempenho destas na comparação com as IES privadas com fins lucrativos. Os resultados obtidos, aliados ao impacto regional das IES comunitárias, justificam a valorização dessas instituições que operam e contribuem para a consolidação dos cursos superiores no Brasil.
Since 2010, the Brazilian communitarian institutions for higher education are not included officially under this designation in the INEP’s microdata, with the extinction of the category “communitarian, religious and philanthropicâ€. Since then, the Brazilian private’s higher education institutions are classified according to their legal nature: for-profit or non-profit. Nevertheless, the new law 12.881 of 2013, enacted in November 2013, has changed this reality after the approval by the National Congress, establishing the definition and purpose of the Community institutions, and confirming, in particular, their characteristics of non-profit institutions belonging to civil society, and their organization into associations or foundations (BRAZIL, 2013). The recent expansion of the federal and for-profit higher education institutions has directly affected the so far called communitarian institutions, which present differentiated characteristics compared to forprofit private higher education institutions as well as public education. In this article, data and contemporary aspects related to the new scenario of Brazilian higher education are analyzed, with special focus on higher education institutions members of the Association of Community Universities (ABRUC), and were found better performance of these ones in comparison to the private for-profit higher education institutions. The obtained results, combined with the regional impact of the communitarian higher education institutions, justify the importance of these institutions to improve the consolidation of higher education in Brazil.
