Leonardo Monasterio, Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea-RJ), IDP-Brasília, and Brazilian National Research Fund (CNPq)
New Technologies and Higher Education: Simulations for Federal Universities in Brazil
How can we increase access to higher education in Brazil? Expanding public higher education in Brazil is a challenge, particularly given the country's ongoing fiscal constraints. With more than a third of civilian federal civil servants working in federal universities, of which almost half are tenured academic staff, the prospects for a new hiring wave remain dim. Thus, productivity gains are the key to expanding the reach of these institutions. This study creates various scenarios to estimate the potential gains from introducing new educational technologies in federal universities. The estimates utilize the method introduced by Adamczyk, Monasterio and Fochezatto (2021), which applies natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning tools to identify automatable tasks for both faculty and non-faculty occupations. Moreover, we examine the feasibility of hybrid courses, assessing the potential welfare gains and any possible quality losses resulting from remote teaching. This study highlights the significant potential of technological innovation in expanding access to higher education in Brazil.
