Expansion of Public Colleges of Social Work from 2003 to 2016: Challenges for professional education

Abstract The article analyzes data referring to public colleges of social work created between 2003 and 2016, gathered from the e-MEC system of Brazil’s Ministry of Education. The data refer to the periods and sub-periods of creation of the schools, their administrative categories, academic organization, region and geographic locations. The results indicate that in the period analyzed (2003 to 2016) more than half of the currently existing public schools of Social Work were created, with a significant impact on public education. The private sector also grew expressively in this period, indicating a strong commodification of Brazilian higher education and a significant use of the modality of distance education as a strategy to expand profits. Based on various studies in the field of education, an expansion of the precariousness of the public sector is also found. Thus, a need is indicated for studies that analyze education in these courses, problematizing their limits and potential, to strengthen universal, quality and secular public education that is free of charge.