A mercantilização da educação superior no Brasil: crítica marxista ao PROUNI

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the influence of capital on the commodification of higher education and the role played by ProUni in this context, through a bibliographical research of the works of Marx, Engels, Mészáros, Chaves, Bertoldo, analyzing and pointing the Marxist critique of this program. Therefore, in addition to the bibliographic study we rely on the official data evaluations available on the expansion of higher education and ProUni. Through these elements, we established an understanding of the expansionist origin of higher education, from the Federal Constitution of 1988 until the first steps of the present government, but rather studying the conception of the State, the role played by it from its beginning, analyzing its function in capitalist society where ProUni and the market process was established. In order to understand the influence of international organizations, such as UNESCO and the World Bank, in the context of higher education, it was also necessary to study the modern state until the implantation of neoliberalism, as well as the history of higher education in Brazil. We also address the influence of capital in the creation of ProUni and in the process of commercialization of higher education where the discourse of democratization of access is disseminated from the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration. Finally, we will deal with the Marxist critique of ProUni, examining the tax waivers made by the State with the implementation of this program and the occurrence of transfer of financial resources from the public to the private sector, pointing to the process of scrapping the public higher education sector as a consequences of that policy. We conclude that the commodification of higher education is undeniable, and meets the aspirations and neoliberal projects for education, only. Being the impact on higher education nefarious, resulting no sucatiamiento of the public sector of higher education.