Article 01: HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: DIAGNOSIS AND TRENDS

Abstract

The higher education sector is affected by sudden and profound changes due to the impacts caused by globalization and by the regulatory intervention of the State. Deep technological, financial and pedagogical-structural transformations are under way, aggravated by a set of external privatization measures and recommendations. Structural shocks to education have led to perplexity or a profit-oriented stance at any price. To that end, the multilateral agencies practically require the transformation of the free and public university into a private institution, regulated to obtain competitive advantages of the market. The first step towards the privatization of the university consists in a policy of state development and, consequently, in the gradual scrapping and loss of institutional effectiveness. Therefore, on the pretext of optimizing profits, and thus solving the "crisis of the university", it would be necessary to convert it into a company like any other. The privatization of the university would result in the loss of autonomy and, thus, in its total institutional characterization, with the sacrifice of research due to its very high costs.