University: critique for autonomy, public vocation and other knowledge

Abstract

Autonomy, public commitment, critical force, trans-disciplinarity and openness to other knowledge constitute the notions that organize the problematic vision of this article on today’s university. Argumentative logic structures these matters sequentially, analyzing the difficulties and challenges that contemporary universities face today within a market context, of weakening of its public role and of the diversity of knowledge struggling for recognition. These referential notions are discussed as central components of a broad normative framework for today’s universities. These are elements that would contribute to facing the university challenges in a vulnerable and financially besieged continent, of trans-nationalization, weakening management of its natural resources, technological dependence, weak democracies, multiple inequalities and increasing processes of discontent and social demands.