Apollo International Builds on a Local Network to Create Colleges in
Brazil
By BURTON BOLLAG
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Jorge Klor de Alva, a former Princeton University social-sciences professor,
dreams of owning dozens of colleges across this vast
ALSO SEE:
Chronicle video:
(Requires Real One media
player, available free.)
» An interview with the chief academic
officer at Pitágoras College, a Brazilian forprofit institution that uses distance
education
» An interview with the rector of the
University of the Americas, a Chilean forprofit institution that has grown
exponentially since it was bought by
Sylvan.
» A Spanish television commercial for the
University of the Americas (English text
translation available).
country, each teaching exactly the same lessons on
the same day. This assembly-line approach would
deliver "high quality at low cost," he muses.
And it would also provide a fantastic business
opportunity for a company he heads, Apollo
International. One of its key investors, the Apollo
Group, owns the University of Phoenix, which has
pioneered such highly structured modular learning for
working adults in the United States.
Related articles:
Spanning the Globe
In Chile, a Fast-Growing University,
Owned by Sylvan, Produces Profits and
Scorn
Private Universities Bloom in Chile
It just so happens that the Pitágoras Group, a
Brazilian company that owns the country's thirdlargest chain of private schools, was thinking along
similar lines. The two groups made a 50-50
partnership and two years ago opened their first
institution, Pitágoras College, here in Brazil's fourth-largest city, 220 miles north
of Rio de Janeiro.
The two groups have more than similar thinking going for them -- they also have
politics. Mr. Klor de Alva's close friend, Walfrido dos Mares Guia, the owner of
the Pitágoras Group, was named minister for tourism in Brazil's recently elected
left-of-center government, and it never hurts to have friends in high places. Mr.
Mares Guia's network of 375 elementary and secondary schools will be "a feeder
system and a platform" for expansion across Brazil of a future network of
Pitágoras colleges, says Mr. Klor de Alva.
In the first college's newly renovated seven-story building on a pleasant
downtown street here, classes tend to have about 50 students, and are taught
with standardized PowerPoint presentations projected onto a screen at the front
of the classroom. The lessons are available online so students can review them
at any time. In other rooms, students sit in groups of five, discussing problems or
doing other group assignments.
Ready for the Job Market
Amaryllis Nogueira Santos, a first-year student of business administration, says
she likes Pitágoras's hands-on education, including the simulations of real-world
business situations. "This method is better," she says. "At the other universities in
Brazil, they just give you theory."
As it nears the end of its second academic year, Pitágoras has 1,100 students
enrolled here and a total of 200 more at two newer branches in the cities of
Curitiba and Ipatinga. Two-thirds of the students are working young adults -- with
an average age of 24 -- enrolled in evening classes. The rest of the classes meet
in the mornings.
Although not classified as a university, since it conducts no research and has no
graduate studies, Pitágoras offers the basic Brazilian four-year undergraduate
diploma (which, in reality, often takes Brazilian students six or seven years to
complete).
The thrust of Pitágoras's mission is to make graduates employable. This is
reflected in the choice of its career-oriented disciplines. Only two are currently
offered: business administration and industrial engineering. Law, typically an
undergraduate program in Brazil, is set to start in August. Six new disciplines are
awaiting authorization from the education authorities: communications, nursing,
occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, and tourism.
Skills useful for working life, like teamwork and communication, are stressed.
Two-fifths of students' time is spent in the classroom, two-fifths working in teams,
and one-fifth on exams and student presentations. Students must make regular
PowerPoint presentations in class, English and Spanish classes are mandatory -reflecting the dominant languages of international business -- and students learn
how to prepare a résumé and go to job interviews.
"Students leave here well prepared to face the market," says Aécio Lira, the
academic vice president.
Standard Curriculum
The institution contracts with leading experts in their fields to create courses,
says Claudio de Moura Castro, Pitágoras's chief academic adviser. He left a job
as chief educational adviser to the Inter-American Development Bank, in
Washington, to develop Pitágoras's academic program. "We tell them, whatever
else, it must consist of 10 units [there are 10 weeks to a term], and each unit
must have an introduction explaining what is important, information on how
students will be evaluated, and suggestions for practical work."
Handbooks are then printed -- one for teachers and one for students. Teachers,
most employed part time, are trained in how to teach the lessons. With the
curriculum already worked out in detail, faculty members needn't be highly
specialized themselves.
Low-Quality Market
This may sound a lot like high school. But Simon Schwartzman, a former
professor of political science at the prestigious State University of São Paulo who
now works at the Institute of Labor and Society, an independent think tank in Rio
de Janeiro, says Pitágoras is not a bad alternative to the often very low quality of
private higher education in Brazil. "You're talking about [young] people who don't
want an academic career, but who want to improve their skills," says Mr.
Schwartzman, who is a member of a Pitágoras advisory committee that meets
once a year. "It could be a good model for that segment" of the student
population.
In its promotional material, Pitágoras stresses that it uses the teaching
methodology developed by the University of Phoenix. It has adopted Phoenix's
marketing strategy as well: organizing recruitment activities on the premises of
willing local companies.
There is a significant difference in educational philosophy, though. Phoenix
caters to adults who have a number of years of work experience. Most of
Pitágoras's students are younger. So, like an American liberal-arts college, the
Brazilian institution includes a lot of general studies in the first two years of its
programs, to try to develop well-rounded graduates. "We also put more emphasis
on basic skills, like reading, writing, speaking in public, and using computers,"
says Mr. Castro.
Pitágoras charges tuition of $2,000 per year, which is about average for Brazilian
private institutions. One of the biggest problems the institution faces is the
difficulty many students have paying the bill. Administrators say this is the main
reason that about 20 percent of students drop out during their first year.
Mr. Klor de Alva is not worried. He has already started negotiating the purchase
of two large private Brazilian colleges, which would retain their own names but
fully adopt the Pitágoras method and curriculums. Within five years, he predicts,
the network will have 60,000 to 70,000 students.