Editorial.
| Autor | Francisco, Elaine Marlova Venzon |
When we first released the open call for this issue between October 1st, 2018 and March 15th, 2019, the current Brazilian government was not yet in the picture, nor was its radical measures to attack social rights and dismantle public universities in our country.
The open call thus said:
articles that, based on theoretical and/or empirical research, problematize the transformation of higher education, both in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, taking into consideration a double-articulated movement: the current private higher education market and public policies of counter-education. The present call for papers also aims to publish articles that analyze the changes in work conditions and relations in teaching jobs, and the current and future challenges of both the public university and the professional training in social work, due to the transformation of the public university in an "operational university" (Chaui, 1999) and the expansion of private higher education in Brazil, especially out of class education. The concern about bringing to the public a debate about professional training in social work was there, given the growth of long-distance learning courses, as well as the processes of transformation in the public university, which were already felt, especially the from the 2016 coup.
However, in late April, the government announced a R$ 1.7 billion cut on federal university budgets from a total of R$ 49.6 billion. "In total, considering all universities, the cut is R$ 1.7 billion, which represents 24.84% of non-compulsory spending (called discretionary) and 3.43% of the total federal budget". (1)
To these cuts, society responded with two major public acts, where teachers, students, and workers of various categories protested in more than 200 cities on May 15th, and around 130 cities on May 30th. (2)
Another attack by this government occurs on July 17th, when the "Future-se" program is announced, which switches the financial structure of federal public universities to private funding. (3)
These radical attacks on the public and democratic aspects of the public university add to the threats of the previous government when it altered the public consultation to appoint rectors, which makes the process of choosing rectors in public universities even more unstable. (4)
It is against this background of a project still under construction, which claims for a free, democratic, and socially referenced public university, that we bring to...
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃOCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
