The Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science created in 2024 a series of webinars – the Higher Education Forum. The series was inaugurated with a historical rescue of the sector in Brazil. Sociologist and academic Simon Schwartzman and physician and professor Naomar Monteiro discussed the origin of university models, questioning the “myth of Humboldt” and the idea that the research university would have emerged in a finished form in the nineteenth century. which are not the only ones, but just a model within a diverse system. The debate was led by Academics Aldo Zarbin and Sylvio Canuto. In Brazil, the researchers highlighted the strong division between public universities, responsible for almost all scientific production, and private institutions, which concentrate the majority of students and distance learning courses. Although the model of federal universities, structured from the 1968 reform, has been successful in producing high-level research, it is not sufficient to meet the growing demand for higher education. Both defended greater institutional autonomy, more flexible and differentiated assessments, and a plural ecosystem, capable of accommodating different vocations, even in the face of challenges such as the expansion of distance learning and the need to ensure quality and social impact.
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