BRAZIL: University affirmative action faces crucial rests

When Rio de Janeiro became the first Brazilian state to adopt quotas for Afro-Brazilian students in institutions of higher education in 2002, black activists hoped that the country was finally coming to terms with the bitter legacy of slavery, write Andrew Downie and Marion Lloyd for The Chronicle of Higher Education. But eight years later affirmative action policies, which have since been adopted by scores of other universities on behalf of the country's most disadvantaged groups, could be ruled unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court.

The court, which was to reconvene last week, will hear two separate challenges to quotas: one for Afro-Brazilians at the University of Brasilia and the other involving graduates of public high schools at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The two universities are among the roughly 150 of the country's 2,000 institutions of higher education that have adopted some form of affirmative action since 2002, according to education experts.
The Chronicle of Higher Education