Reconfiguration of the Federal District´s higher education field: movements and tendencies.
Higher education. Expansion of higher education. Higher education institutions. Federal District.
This investigation analyzes the Federal District higher education field´s configuration dynamics between 2010 and 2022. Subscribing to a critical-dialectical approach, it employs both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, analyzing secondary data from the Higher Education Census on undergraduate enrollments in both on-campus and distance learning modalities across all higher education institutions in the DF, also interviewing twelve interlocutors. Among them are leaders of public and private institutions, researchers, and a member of an association private sector institutions. Bringing reflections to the theme, it considers the local field was reconfigured by the actions of national educational groups, with consequences for the forms of competition in the field, especially regarding the prevalence of pricing strategies. It also concludes that the field shows trends of increasing enrollments in distance education due to the actions of the same groups and a decrease of on-campus enrollments, with the Covid-19 pandemic intensifying both trends. Finally, it states the importance of higher education policy, particularly the rise and fall of Fies, on the reconfiguration of the DF´s higher education field during the analyzed period.