At Brazil's Universities, Affirmative Action Faces Crucial Tests

When Rio de Janeiro became the first Brazilian state to adopt quotas for Afro-Brazilian students in institutions of higher education, in 2002, black activists hoped that the country was finally coming to terms with the bitter legacy of slavery. But just eight years later, affirmative-action policies—which have since been adopted by scores of other Brazilian universities on behalf of the country's most disadvantaged groups—could be ruled unconstitutional by the country's Federal Supreme Court.

The court, which is to reconvene on August 2, will hear two separate challenges to quotas: one for Afro-Brazilians at the University of Brasilia and the other involving graduates of public high schools at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

The two universities are among the roughly 150 of the country's 2,000 institutions of higher education that have adopted some form of affirmative action since 2002, according to education experts. (The government does not keep figures on how many universities have adopted the policies.) The government's University for All Program, or ProUni, a scholarship program at private universities, has similar quotas for Afro-Brazilians and students from low-income families, among other disadvantaged groups.

SOURCE: Downie, Andrew & Lloyd, Marion. "At Brazil's Universities, Affirmative Action Faces Crucial Tests". The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 1, 2010.