The democratisation of higher education in Brazil

Although the social exclusion of Blacks and Afro-descendants in Brazil is evident and calls for public policies to redress social inequality in particular policies on access to higher education this issue still provokes a lot of controversy and debate in Brazilian society as to its purpose and efficiency especially after three public universities pioneered the Quota System programme in 2001 aimed at this assumedly Black population Afro-descendants. With this in mind this study entitled The Democratisation of Higher Education in Brazil: A Study of the Quota System for Blacks and Afro-descendants at the State University of Bahia (UNEB) sought to discuss not only the underlying aspects of this process of social exclusion that influenced these public policies but mainly to explore the results obtained by the research related to the efficiency and weaknesses of the programme and the academic performance of quota students offering academics and all those interested in the subject a good opportunity to learn a little more about this universe and the importance of public policies.