Data released in July by the Ministry of Education shows interesting numbers about Brazil's education segment. 

The country has reached the number of 2,666 Higher Education Institutions. Of those, 183 are pure Universities (6.86 per cent). That means they operate both on teaching and research. There are 166 university centres (6,23 per cent), and they work more on courses more similar to the UK FE Colleges. Finally, there are 2,317 "Faculdades" (86.91 per cent). "Faculdades" offer the same wide range of Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses as universities, but have a thinner structure (if at all) in research. The government's division has nothing to do with quality, as some of the best schools in specific areas are at the "Faculdades" group (as well as in Universities).

Of the 2,666 institutions, 2,378 are maintained by the private initiative. That's 89.2 per cent. There are 288 public institutions (10.8 per cent), being 103 federal, 116 maintained by the states and 69 at municipal level. 

It is interesting to note that 1,118 (47.01 per cent) aim at making profit. Of those, 20 are universities, 32 university centres and 1,066 are "Faculdades". The ones that work more like charities are 1,260 (52.99 per cent). They are 64 universities, 89 university centres and 1,107 "Faculdades".  There is a migration clearly in course towards the ones that seek profit. Just a few years ago, all Higher Education Institutions had at some level a connection to what's called an "association" or a "foundation" in Brazil, and commercial societies were not allowed in the segment.