Democratization of brazilian higher education: from the access to the commitment to academic success

Abstract

This paper is based on the premise that, beyond the commitment to promoting access, the democratization of higher education also entails a commitment to the academic success of students. What has been understood by academic success in the process of democratization of Brazilian higher education is the
question that drives this research, whose main purpose is to unveil some of the meanings with which this expression has been used in the discourses of different actors who participate, directly or indirectly, in the debate of educational issues. The academic production on this subject first, and the documents of the Brazilian National Conference of Education (CONAE) and the Brazilian Nationals Plans for Education (PNE) later have been taken as objects of analysis. The analyses of such documents in the light of the emerging categories – curricular integration, university life, competences and citizenship – has shown that academic success, in the process of democratization of Brazilian higher education, has been broadly understood by incorporating notions of at least three of the categories. Curricular integration, university life and citizenship appear both in the academic production and in the documents analyzed, which makes us think that we are on the right track concerning our framework. Which polices and institutional strategies have been performed to create opportunities of success for a greater number of students, as well as what kind of conception of success these polices and institutional strategies are bound by still remain to be understood.