Abstract

FIOREZE, Cristina  and  BERTOLIN, Julio Cesar Godoy. The siren song of innovation at the community university: from insulation to the risk of hyperporosity. Educação. Porto Alegre [online]. 2023, vol.46, n.1, e42328. ISSN 1981-2582.  https://doi.org/10.15448/1981-2582.2023.1.42328.

New demands and functions are placed on higher education in the so-called knowledge society. Universities are urged to change and innovate, aiming to contribute to economic growth and wealth creation. In the field of knowledge production, a double challenge arises in the context of non-profit private universities in Brazil: on the one hand, requirements specific to entering a market game for innovation, in the sense of applied research, useful to the productive sector, and, on the other, the maintenance of disinterested research. This article analyzes the case of regional community universities in Rio Grande do Sul from the question: what are the trends in conducting university research in view of a scenario of new demands in terms of innovation and approximation with the productive sector? Through field investigation, carried out through interviews with members of the universities under study, followed by a logical deduction between the collected data and the literature, it is argued that such universities, in a context of crisis resulting from the intensification of market competition, are susceptible to fall into a siren song, distancing themselves from a necessary level of insulation towards a risky hyperporosity with the market.

Keywords : higher education; community university; research; hyperporosity; insulation.

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