Higher education in Latin America is considered by many to be in a state of crisis. In Brazil this is certainly the case. In the press and regularly in meetings and discussions in Brazil there is a growing debate about whether public education is excessively costly, inequitable, and inefficient, about the proper role of private institutions, and overall on how the system should change to meet the challenges of the 21st century. A major problem in this debate is a lack of real data and information on the issues under discussion. The purpose of this paper is to provide better information on these points of debate. Specitically, this paper seeks to answer the following questions : to what extent do public institutions in Brazil have a different mission than private institutions? What is the internaI efficiency of the various types of Brazilian higher education institutions, in terms of percentage of entering students who graduate and number of years to produce a graduate? What are the comparable unit costs of public and private institutions and what is the explanation for this difference? What is the socioeconomic background of students attending the various types of higher education institutions? What kinds of jobs do graduates of various types of higher education institutions get?