Description of the paper - Brazilian universities, like the educational system in a great deal of Latin American countries, are experiencing a significant process of transition. They are facing several challenges posed by new education policy settings, mainly in higher education, on the one hand and by social and economic changes on the other. Lula da Silva´s government launched efforts trying to put an end to the privatization process begun by the former Administration, which was based on neoliberal agendas in education at the dawn of the 21st century. Lula's changes meant an improvement in social terms, although the Brazilian university issue is still without solution. The current process still presents excluding and fragmentary public policies in education; if it has been trying to reorganize the public system and control the private one on the one hand, it has not been able to point to a substantial change in Brazil´s higher education system on the other. Which new initiatives relating to higher education are in the agenda concerning public policies to improve the Brazilian University? This paper aims to discuss these issues showing that it is necessary to analyze the evolution of the policies regarding higher education in the two past governments, FHC´s and Lula´s. The education system is an integrated one, formed by three levels: primary, secondary and higher education institutions. Giving priority to one to the detriment of the others does not help to solve the current state. Each level plays a specific role in the whole system. Considering that, nowadays, innovation in knowledge and technology has become crucial for countries to improve their insertion in the global economy; if higher education lies almost entirely in the hands of private institutions, this could mean a delay in the development of scientific research. Education must be understood as a system, a complex whole, in which by affecting one of its parts, the whole the system will be affected.MethodologyBecause it is a dialectic movement, we have chosen to use this method for our analysis. Rather, educational policies are largely situated in sociocultural settings and heavily contextualised in specific domains. Our discussion will be based on theoreticians like Freire(1972 ), Bobbio(1987), Carnoy(1997 ) to show that it is necessary to analyze these issues from many points of view. Studies and research about the Brazilian educational agenda developed by local policy makers, consultants and advisers reveal a process in which international institutions and agencies have played a central role as interlocutors and advisers, e.g. the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and agencies of the United Nations (UN). It must be noted that, in Brazil, since the 1980s the World Bank has reinforced its action. This study makes use of four kinds of documents: (1) Law texts to define the rights to education; (2) newspaper and magazine news and articles which analyze the situation of higher Education in Brazil and documents form the World Bank with advice to privatize higher Education; (3) official statistics whose data enable the qualitative and quantitative perception of gaps, flaws and imbalance between the higher Education scenario and data from the Ministries of Education in Brazil, (4) texts from the University Reform currently in effect in Brazil. Conclusions or expected outcomes or findingsEducation, at the present time of globalization and growing interdependency, is facing new challenges. For developing countries these challenges mean to make their national education network able to raise solutions seeking, on the one hand, to reduce the gap between the developed and developing countries concerning the economic, scientific and technological fields and, on the other hand, to improve their position in the international market as well as in relation to the distribution of income and wealth in the world. BOBBIO, Noberto (1987), The Future of Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press. CASTRO, C. M. and .CARNOY,M.1997. La Reforma Educativa en America Latina. Washington, D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Social Programs and Sustainable Development.FREIRE, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books. LUCCHESI, M. A. S. La Universidad Brasileña en un Contexto de Cambios Impuesto por La Globalización(UNESCO: Selected Bibliography on Higher Education and Internationalization 2006).in: Revista de la Educación Superior, ANUIES/MÉXICO, v. XXXV(1, n. 137, p. 99-109, 2006. available: http://www.anuies.mx/servicios/p_anuies/index2.php?clave=publicaciones/revsup/____________Public Policies for Education in Iberian American countries: searching a new paradigm. In: European Conference on Educational Research 2006, Geneve. Swiss. available: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/142641.htm ,acessed:07/01/2007 ___________ Public Policies for Brazilian Education: Convergences in the Southern Cone and Latin America, Transformations and Quests at the Turn of the Century. In: European Conference on Educational Research 2005,Dublin,Ireland. available: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/156506.htm ,acessed:10/01/2007 ____________ (2003). Universidade, política e pesquisa [University, politics and research]. São Paulo: Memnon.Additional Information Is your proposal part of a master or doctoral thesis? No