Identity and university autonomy in transformation

Abstract

Integrating the field of study of Higher Education, the Universities form an area of their own research that was consolidated more than two decades ago on an original idea of the outstanding sociologist and specialist in university subjects: Pedro Krostch. University autonomy has constituted, since the emergence of universities, one of the central identity features. In the history of the emergence of universities, the imprint granted to this founding feature, its relationship with the public powers and the struggles that were fought to recover it is evidenced. Currently, its identity has been altered, identifying more with the language of the markets than with the languages of the knowledge. Reflecting on this feature inherent to its own existence, aftera hundred years of the University Reform, implies rethinking its identity, the question of knowledge, the right to the University, the challenges to be achieved and the meaning of its existence in the present.