Understand about MEC's Regulation and how it will expand course offers for distance learning!

The new MEC regulations have expanded the range of distance learning courses in higher education in the country!

Published on June 21, Decree No. 9,057, of May 25, 2017, makes it possible to accredit higher education institutions (HEIs) for distance education courses without accreditation for face-to-face courses.

As a result, institutions will be able to offer exclusively distance learning courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate.

The aim is to help the country achieve Goal 12 of the National Education Plan (PNE), which calls for the gross enrollment rate in higher education to rise to 50% and the net rate to 33% of the population aged 18 to 24.

In the same vein, public HEIs are automatically accredited to offer distance learning and must be re-accredited by the MEC within five years of offering their first distance learning course.

In order to guarantee safety and quality, the decree reiterates that the offer of distance learning courses requires prior authorization from the MEC.

Another innovation brought about by the ordinance is the creation of distance education centers by institutions already accredited for this type of teaching.

The document also details the number of centers that institutions will be able to create, based on the institution's most recent institutional concept (IC).

Higher education institutions with CI 3 may create up to 50 centers per year, those with CI 4 may create 150 and those with CI 5 may create up to 250 centers per year.

They can also choose to continue working only at headquarters.

This measure expands the offer of distance learning centers by HEIs already accredited.

Before the recently published Decree, the processes for accrediting centers were analyzed by the Ministry of Education, with very long analysis times.

According to the Secretary for Regulation and Supervision of Higher Education, Henrique Sartori, "these figures take into account the Ministry of Education's concern about the quality of institutions, since they will be able to create more centers according to the quality that the institution possesses and presents for distance education. So the creation of hubs is conditional on the gradation of quality that the institutions in the system have".

On-site visits

The on-site evaluations carried out by the MEC will now be concentrated at the institutions' headquarters and no longer at the hubs.

However, during the visit, the evaluators will check whether the HEI's structure meets the proposed courses, as well as the number of students to be served at the institution's headquarters and at the hubs.

For the courses, the National Curriculum Guidelines continue to be the reference, including for verifying the mandatory face-to-face moments and other specificities of each area.

MEC regulations and distance learning course offerings

The Minister of Education, Mendonça Filho, justifies updating the legislation by comparing the percentage of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 enrolled in higher education in different countries.

While Argentina and Chile have around 30% of their young people in higher education - a percentage that exceeds 60% in the United States and Canada - Brazil has a rate of less than 20%.

"This reality is the result both of the fact that this is still a very recent modality in Brazilian higher education and of the fact that the current regulations date back to 2005 and do not incorporate updates in communication and information technologies, nor the didactic, pedagogical and technological models consolidated at the present time," he explains.

Courses without face-to-face activities, on the other hand, are now permitted, but require prior authorization from the MEC and an on-site evaluation visit, even for HEIs with autonomy.

MEC's Department for the Regulation and Supervision of Higher Education (Seres) also intends to implement actions to monitor distance learning centers in order to ensure that the requirements for their operation are met.

Transition rules in the MEC regulations

Transitional provisions have been laid down for cases that are in progress on the date of publication of the ordinance, adapting the analysis of cases to the new legislation.

There will be no need to continue the visits to poles that have not yet been visited.

The centers and hubs already visited will have an accreditation decree published by MEC and the HEIs will be able to create hubs by their own act, with the processes being filed by SERES.

Only those HEIs that choose to wait for a visit and not make use of the new legislation must inform the MEC of their choice.

Those that choose to follow the new legislation will have their processes analyzed by the MEC.

With the ordinance published, the country is moving in the direction of innovation and is also increasing competition in the sector, encouraging the expansion of supply and quality.

The changes were published in Normative Ordinance No. 11 of the Federal Official Gaz ette on June 21.

Source: MEC