O programa REUNI na Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (2008-2012)

Abstract

In 2007, in order to restructure and expand access to public universities in Brazil, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva established REUNI, a support program for planning, restructuring and expanding federal universities, which was presented as a central action of past decade s government to increase rates of access and permanence in public universities. This study focused on the implementation of REUNI at Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). Its overall aim was to analyze it in the period 2008 12 to identify how this program affected both UFU s institutional culture in a political and cultural point of view and the Dean of Graduation s in a technical and operational sense. The methodology included critical reading of bibliography on the research subject matter, legal document analysis and field research. As to the political and cultural aspect, results show that there were: both impact on the growth movement and oxygenation with the arrival of new civil servants; clash of generations tensions between old and new servants; renewal of higher councils; training of management personnel; sharing of academic spaces; and relationship between graduation and post graduation. In the Dean of Graduation, implementing REUNI reflected on the technical and operational aspect, especially increase of work demands, lack of personnel and new technologies of information and communication. An interpretive reading of the data referring to REUNI at UFU opens up a promising field for research dealing with the implementation of public policies in university education.