The choice of a creationist to lead the agency that regulates postgraduate degrees in Brazil is further evidence of the government¡¯s assault on science and universities, academics have said.

Jair Bolsonaro¡¯s administration appointed Benedito Guimar?es Aguiar Neto president of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) agency at the end of January.

Mr Aguiar Neto is a former rector of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, a private religious institution in S?o Paulo, where he promoted the teaching of ¡°intelligent design¡±. He has regularly talked of his belief in creationism and disbelief in evolution, according to Brazilian media.

Brazilian academics told?Times Higher Education?that the announcement was the latest in a series of attacks on science, research and education since Mr Bolsonaro became president last year.

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His government has already made large funding cuts to federal universities and has halved the Ministry of Science¡¯s budget. An earlier appointment ¨C of?Abraham Weintraub as education minister?¨C was also badly received. The right-wing economist has been widely ridiculed for a series of gaffes on Twitter.

Mr Aguiar Neto will lead Capes, a federal government agency under the Ministry of Education, which oversees quality assurance in undergraduate and postgraduate institutions and awards postgraduate grants to students at universities and research centres.

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¡°It is not a secret here in Brazil that Bolsonaro was elected with great support from Christian/evangelical conservative churches. The problem is that Bolsonaro does not respect secularism in governmental decisions,¡± said Adriana Marotti de Mello, professor of business at the University of S?o Paulo.

She added that Mr Aguiar Neto¡¯s background at a private, Presbyterian university also demonstrated the government¡¯s preference for private universities over the public system, even though public universities undertake 95?per cent of Brazil¡¯s research.

Jefferson Cardia Sim?es, professor of glaciology and polar geography at the?Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, agreed that Brazil¡¯s scientific community was ¡°discouraged¡± by the appointment but said he hoped that Mr Aguiar Neto would know how to ¡°separate religious beliefs from science¡±.

¡°I hope he realises that our advances in various areas of knowledge, from medicine to the search for oil and gas resources, are based on the theory of evolution,¡± he said.

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Antonio Marques, professor of biodiversity at the University of S?o Paulo, said the problem was not Mr Aguiar Neto¡¯s religious background but rather the government¡¯s placing someone ¡°who clearly believes in pseudoscience and has promoted anti-science actions in a position to manage the future and decide the direction of the nation¡¯s science¡±.

anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com