Programas de expansão e reestruturação das universidades federais: uma análise da UFPI no período de 2003 a 2016

Abstract

This study, carried out within the scope of the Doutorado Interinstitucional - DINTER - UFPI / UFU, falls within the line of research Estado e Política Educacional do Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação of the promoting institution, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. Its general objective wass to analuze the Expansion and Restructuring Plans of the Federal university of Piauí in the period from 2003 to 2016, in he contexto of the Expansion and Reestruturing Programs of Federal Universities and other policies for Braziliam higher education in conjunction with tue economic policies implemented in the aforementioned period. The investigation was conducted in order to answer the following question: what is the rationality of the transformations produced at UFPI since its accession to the Programas de Expansão e Reestruturação of federal education in the period from 2003 to 2016? Our assumption pointed to the existence of two unequal and combined processes: restructuring in order to subordinate UFPI to the interests of the economy and the State, in continuity with the process started in the 1990s and expansion in order to expand the attendance of the contained demand, in a focused, controlled policy and meeting the interests of the market and labor, both in the sense of providing the objective conditions for realizing more value in the present context of the structural crisis of the capitalist economy. In the development of the study, we started from the contextualization of these policies in the national and international scenario, identifying their connection with the macro-social processes of restructuring, economic, political and cultural, between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, in response to the crises of the capitalist economy and condition for its extended reproduction. Through documentary research and bibliographic review, we analyzed the policies for the expansion and restructuring of higher education in Brazil in conjunction with the economic policies of different governments, starting in 1990, with an emphasis on the cycle of expansion and restructuring of federal universities in the period of 2003 to 2016. The theoretical-methodological support and the epistemological conception of historical-dialectical materialism proved to be relevant and effective in revealing the contradictions and interconnections between economic factors, educational policies and higher education. In data collection, we resort to numerous references. In the bibliography we highlight Mandel (1985), Marx (2014), Braverman (1977), Mészáros (1996; 2011), Antunes (2011), Maués (2008), Silva Jr and Sguissard (2001), Saviani (2007), Medeiros ( 2012), Francisco (2016) Ferreira (2009), Chaves, et al (2008), Mancebo (2008), Lima (2007), Cunha (1980; 1983), in addition to theses, dissertations and scientific articles. Documents such as Laws, Decrees, Resolutions, Reports, Plans, Projects, Balance Sheets, among others, formed the basis of the research. The text was developed in five chapters, in addition to the introduction and final considerations. In chapter I, we addressed the topic of higher education in Brazil and its changes in the context of neoliberal economic restructuring, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In chapter II, we discussed policies for higher education between 2003 and 2006 in conjunction with the economic development model adopted in the first Lula government, highlighting the dimensions of the public and private relationship at this educational level. In chapter III, we addressed the REUNI policy in the context of public, economic and educational policies in the Lula and Dilma governments (2008-2016), as well as its relationship with higher education models, especially the North American Model, the European Unified Model and the New University Model. A summary of the expansion of higher education between 2003 and 2014, considering the number of institutions, undergraduate courses, human resources, enrollments and graduates, closes the text. Chapter IV discusses the policy of Expansion-Interiorization of federal universities: an analysis of the expansion and interiorization plan of the Universidade Federal do Piauí - UFPI (2006-2008), highlighting the relationship of this expansion with regional and local development. The final chapter deals with REUNI-UFPI and focuses on the quantitative, qualitative, and structural aspects of the Reestruturação-Expansão da Universidade Federal do Piauí - UFPI (2009-2016). In the final considerations we present the results, highlight some contradictions and point out the limits of the present study. The analysis of the policies for the expansion and restructuring of higher education within the scope of the Universidade Federal do Piauí, despite the contradictions and the undisclosed contours, which suggest new investigative processes, confirms our assumption in the following terms: unquestionable increase in the offer of courses and of vacancies, as well as the expansion of its service capacity in the night shift and in the countryside, as a result of the implementation of the Planos de Expansão-Interiorização e Reestruturação-Expansão. On the other hand, they demonstrated standardization in the teaching and learning process in subordination to the demands of the labor market and the production and reproduction of capital, local and regional, integrated with the national-international, without detracting from the dimensions of social inclusion of these policies.