This text is the result of an investigation that takes democratization and internationalization as references of quality in Brazilian education. The first topic points to the inclusion of a first generation population of students, in which many of its members work and study, who belong to the middle class and, in some cases, get into university through racial quotas or coming from public schools, which are away from meritocracy patterns. Internationalization, though, seems to point to meritocratic demands, involving careers of the higher complexity, student paths with bigger cultural opportunities, including foreign languages mastery and availability of conditions to get away from the labour market, among other conditions. By exploring contributions of authors who have been dedicating their efforts to examine the impact of two vectors in higher education, the arguments defend a democratization under cultural and epistemological perspectives that will mediate internationalization advancement, when it gets focused on the benefit of the process of capital accumulation from hegemonic subjects. This text also bets on the importance of a globalization that has identification with solidarity work and movements that defend cultural identities and dialogue with global references. This may be a possibility of constituting an achievement that aims to reach fairer educational systems, in an equitable society.
Key-words:
Higher education; university; democratization and internationalization