The article discusses data from an empirical research carried out with fifty higher education students enrolled in private institutions who were awarded scholarships from the University for All Program (ProUni) in São Paulo, by establishing a dialogue with reflections present in The Inheritors. Qualitative methodology was used in the analysis of interviews and questionnaires through the articulation of family and working conditions and access and permanence experiences in the for-profit higher education sector in Brazil. The results suggest important differences among three subgroups of scholars (who are either pursuing a bachelor's degree, a teaching licensure or a technologist degree), with marked positive aspects for scholars pursuing a bachelor's degree with regard to their educational background, social and economic origin, cultural conditions as well as access to more prestigious courses and universities.
Private higher education; ProUni - University for All Program; The Inheritors; Educational inequalities