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INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

Student Dissent and Politics at the University of São Paulo

Simon Schwartzman
Simon Schwartzman is president of the Institute for Studies on Labor in Society in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: simon@schwartzman.org.br.

On May 3, 2007, a group of students took over the rector's office at the University of São Paulo (USP). The group claims to represent the university's 80,000 students and does have the support of the unions of the university's administrative personnel, the teachers union, and some professors.

Universidade de São Paulo
USP is a state institution, supported by the state of São Paulo and one of the most important in Latin America. One-third of its students are in master's and PhD programs. There are 15,000 administrative employees and about 5,000 academics, most of them with a doctoral degree. In 2004, the university granted 2,100 PhDs, 3,300 MAs, and 5,500 professional degrees in all fields of knowledge at 68 units, on the main campus in the city of São Paulo and on campuses in other cities in the state.

The university receives 5 percent of the state of São Paulo's tax revenues, which amounted last year to about 2.2 billion reais (US$1.1 billion). Within its budget, the university is free to use the funds as it sees fit and can also obtain revenues from other sources. To enter the university, students need to pass an exam that can be extremely competitive in fields like medicine, engineering, or law. There is no tuition. Most doctoral students are able to get fellowships as stipends. Professors at USP are the major recipients of research grants from the Brazilian National Research Council and São Paulo's Science Support Agency.

The Political and Ideological Agenda
The main justification for the occupation of the USP rector's office was to protest the decree of the newly elected state governor, José Serra, requiring that the three state universities (USP, the University of Campinas, and the State University of São Paulo)—which together receive about 10 percent of state revenues—should post their routine financial transactions in a transparent state system open for inspection on the Internet. The students argue that as an autonomous institution the university should not make its accounts transparent. This decree followed the nomination of a state secretary for higher education and, given the autonomy of the universities, was feared as an attempt to bring them under the governor's control. Previously the universities were nominally under the secretary for science and technology, which had, however, other functions and did not interfere in their activities.

The students declared that the decree was an attack against university autonomy, despite reassurance from the state government and declaration by the university authorities that this was not the case. The students demanded that the governor should revoke the decree and presented a long list of other demands—from full participation of students in all university decision bodies to the construction of new buildings for student residence and the opening of restaurants with some subsidized meals. They also have been demanding that the state should increase the percentage of its tax revenues it gives to the universities.

The agenda of this movement is very clear. Most of the student activists and their supporters belong to small extreme left-wing fringe groups that dominate the unions and associations, given the general passivity and disinterest of the rest of the community. The students oppose what they define as a "neoliberal" hidden agenda of privatizing the university. By privatization the students mean any policy of the university or its departments to establish links with industry or to generate additional revenues by—God forbid!—charging tuition.

Several departments—particularly in the fields of engineering, agricultural research, economics, and business administration—have developed strong links with private and public external clients and generate resources through research, technical assistance, and extension courses. However, over the last few years, in response to negative pressures from the unions, the rector's office has introduced several limitations and restrictions on these activities. Yet these efforts to appease the unions failed to stop the occupation of the rector's office. The rector is now caught between the political demands of the militants and the growing annoyance of most academics and students with this interruption of their work. Public opinion, which often looks at the students with sympathy, seems to be turning against them. The rector has obtained a court order requiring the students to vacate the building and could legally ask the police to dislodge them by force, but neither she nor the state governor wants to risk a physical confrontation.

Higher Education in São Paulo
It should be noted that the state's current higher education sector represents the context of the various perspectives. In the state of São Paulo, 85 percent of the enrollments in higher education are in private institutions. There has been an ongoing demand from different sectors to increase the size and coverage of the state system. The already high cost of the state system involves the assumption that all academics are full-time researchers, which is not generally true, and the impossibility of charging tuition. Moreover, increasing the 10 percent tax base that goes to public higher educatio would be difficult to justify, given the pressing needs of basic education, health, security, and other social requirements.

Recently persons linked to the higher education sector have sought to plan a project for the expansion of higher education in the state similar in form to the California state system. The USP and the University of Campinas would follow the role of the University of California, the State University of São Paulo playing the role of the State University system, and expanding the Paula Souza vocational schools into a network similar to the community colleges (in partnership with municipalities and the private sector). However, this plan is not likely to be endorsed by the current state government. The prevailing commitment is to change the USP from a high-quality, internationally minded research university into a mass-oriented, highly subsidized, local and politically dominated institution.

The Conflict's Impact
Eventually, the students will abandon the rector's office. Already, most university departments are working normally, although the unions plan to use the crisis as an opportunity to strike for higher salaries. The key result of this episode will likely be a stalemate—a worrisome outcome. On May 31, the state government revised the decree, explicitly stating that it will not limit the autonomy of the universities. But the students and unions will not obtain most of their demands—besides some minor concessions, like weekend buses and subsidized restaurants. However, the university authorities as well as the state government will fear implementing policies to make universities use their resources more efficiently, to create strong links with the productive sector, and to grant more autonomy to the departments and institutes for raising additional resources. The conflicts will also thwart the proposals to create a more differentiated, California-like system. Needless to say, charging tuition for high-income students in public universities will not be raised. This issue is forbidden in the Brazilian constitution. No politician in Brazil has dared to publicly defend this policy, while many do agree in private, because of the inevitable backlash from radical students and unions.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number48/p16_Schwartzman.htm