REFORMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL AND IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE NEW ROLE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

This paper analyzes the formation process of new social roles that are required from public universities in the reform of higher education in Brazil and the European Union since the 1990s, based on the internationalization stage of higher education system, which calls into question the need for reconfiguration of public universities, in line with the accelerated changes arising from the restructuring process of global capitalism. Ongoing reforms has enabled the introduction of new regulatory agents, and some institutional forms standardization and training routes in detriment of a more academic formation. Remarkable, also, the new economic demands and the new modus operandi of knowledge production, as well as changes in the criteria of relevance and social pertinence, which imply significant changes in the concept of the university, making them more attuned to the requirements of globalization production.