Brazil's postgraduate system shows excellence despite regional concentration

The 2021–2024 Quadrennial Evaluation by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) highlights the high quality of Brazil's postgraduate system. The results indicate that Brazil has demonstrated a significant capacity to build academic excellence, specifically through programs achieving scores of 6 and 7, which represent the highest levels of scientific and academic quality.

However, the data reveals a strategic challenge regarding the concentration of this excellence. High-performing programs remain heavily concentrated within specific institutions and geographic regions. This creates a need to not only preserve established centers but also to develop new poles of excellence throughout the country to ensure a more distributed scientific landscape.

Historical perspectives on the system suggest ongoing structural issues, such as the overlapping of master's and doctoral programs. Unlike models where doctoral degrees are direct paths for researchers, the Brazilian system has often required a master's degree as a mandatory precursor, leading to longer academic careers and a blurring of the distinction between professional and academic training.