Educational sector of MERCOSUR: convergence and regional integration of brazilian higher education

Abstract:

This work seeks to seize the recent modifications in Brazilian higher education through two main mediations: the Brazilian State and the Educational Sector of Common Market of South (SEM). The context is in which internationalization of economy occurs and socio-political relations that consist of the historical forms of institutionally articulated structures in the organization and functioning of education. It highlights the efforts of supranational management educational affairs at the same time that seeks to understand the relationship between the major policy (formulated in supranational level in SEM) and the small politics, led the Brazilian State, in the formulation of public policies about higher education. It unveils the institutional mechanisms that have been providing integration and regionalization of higher education through two vectors drivers of reform of higher education: evaluation and mobility. The time of research dates back to genesis of MERCOSUR, in the early 1990, extending to the present day, based on documentary analysis of minutes of meetings, action plans, protocols, treaties and agreements signed within the framework of SEM and the set of nominations and legislation formulated in terms of Brazilians governments, in the period 1995-2014, in order to add the dimension of time to understanding the political action of the subjects involved in the formulation of policies on higher education in regional and national levels; and, the seizure of the clashes of forces with theoretical and political disputes around the reform of higher education.

Key words:
Educational sector of MERCOSUR; Regional integration; Higher education policies.