The article aims to discuss the democratization policies adopted in the Brazilian Federal universities, implemented from Lula's Government, such as Program Support the Restructuring Plans and Expansion of Federal Universities, Quota policy for admission of students from public schools with vacancies reserved for low-income sectors and for ethnic minorities and Student Assistance policies. The research is based on literature review and analysis of documents on the subject. The first part of the text brings a panorama of Brazilian higher education in recent decades and the second part analyzes the problems and limits of such policies, in particular as regards the inclusion of socially disadvantaged layers and of ethnic minorities in high-demand courses/high social prestige. The text demonstrates that the development of access policies and student assistance, with an increase in vacancies and in the entrance of students, has not been accompanied by the permanence of students in the system, with graduation and completion rates of undergraduate courses declining in recent years. In this respect, inclusion and exclusion, access/permanence /dropout rates must be seen together and not separately. In the final considerations are raised questions in order to discuss the inclusion of new profiles of students in a university model that largely has not changed, being pointed the main challenges for the next decade.
Key words:
Democratization policies; Federal universities; Limits; Challenges