[1][2] In 1975, the Ernesto Geisel administration created the Programa de Crédito Educativo (English: Educational Credit Program), reformulated in 1999 during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government and renamed FIES.
[1][3][4][5][6] In 2014, 26% of students enrolled in private higher education institutions benefited from FIES, representing an investment of around R$13 billion by the national government.
In December 2014 and early 2015, the administration implemented changes to the criteria for granting finance by limiting the rate of annual readjustment of tuition fees and requiring students to achieve a minimum of 450 points and not to have failed the essay in the National High School Exam (ENEM).
[10][11][12][13] In addition, the MEC emphasized that 100,000 students will be able to finance the course with zero interest, as long as they belong to the group with a family income of up to three minimum wages; the ENEM score is used as the classification criterion for this benefit.
All the operations of the selection process, from the adhesion of educational institutions and student registration to the publication of results and interviews, are carried out over the Internet.