KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETITIVENESS IN PRIVATE HEIS: AN ANALYSIS 2010–2024
UMA ANÁLISE 2010–2024
Keywords:
private higher education, competitive intelligence, knowledge management, Higher Education CensusAbstract
The expansion of Brazilian private higher education, intensified by digitalization and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has produced significant changes in the structure of supply, the profile of demand, and the competitive dynamics of the sector. The study applied the Competitive Intelligence cycle, integrated with Knowledge Management, to the longitudinal analysis of data from the Higher Education Census, transforming public data into strategic intelligence to support planning and competitive monitoring of private higher education institutions. The research is characterized as applied, with a quantitative approach, using time series and the Compound Annual Growth Rate across three-time frames (2010–2024, 2016–2020, and 2020–2024). The results show a 72.3% increase in private enrollments, a 457.9% expansion of distance education, and a 21.8% decline in in-person education, culminating in a modal shift in 2024, when distance education accounted for 63.6% of enrollments. Additionally, there was an increase in the student-to-faculty ratio from 16.0 to 20.7 and growth in new enrollments in the Northern region at a rate 2.6 times higher than in the Southeast. The findings indicate that the main challenge for private institutions lies not in data availability, but in the ability to transform it into organizational knowledge and institutionalized intelligence. It is concluded that the integration of Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management strengthens organizational memory, enhances trend interpretation, and contributes to evidence-based strategies in contexts of high complexity and change.