HIGHER EDUCATION POLICIES FOR THE XXI CENTURY : THE FUTURE OF EMERGING COUNTRIES

Brazilian universities, like the educational system in a great deal of Latin American countries, are experiencing a significant process of transition. They are facing several challenges posed by new education policy settings, mainly in higher education, on the one hand and by social and economic changes on the other. The modern university, as a more recent phenomenon linked to science, also appeared. Born in medieval Europe, transformed in modernity, and expanded worldwide, modern university today seeks a new face capable of accounting for globalization without losing its identity and its ethos of generating, difffusing and guarding knowledge, of the place where this very knowledge may be overcome. Our discussion will be based on theoreticians such as Freire (1996), Bobbio(1987), Carnoy(1997 ) to show that it is necessary to analyze these issues from many points of view. Studies and research about the Brazilian educational agenda developed by local policy makers, consultants and advisers reveal a process in which international institutions and the process of Bologna play a central role. Procedural method is the comparative one, since we are comparing the European reality with that of emerging countries, especially Brazil, in relation to overcoming borders in higher Education. We also analyse the relationship between knowledge production and professional formation.