Abstract

CAETANO, Eduardo Ferreira da Silva. The university autonomy of federal universities: myth or fact?. Rev. Bras. Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.30, e300044. ISSN 1809-449X.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1413-24782025300044.

Federal universities have the missions of teaching, research and extension, and are used to offer higher education and to promote knowledge, culture, economy, social and technology for society. The Federal Constitution of 1988 (CF/1988) guaranteed the autonomy of universities to carry out their mission. This study analyzed Brazilian university autonomy in order to verify whether it was a fact or a myth. It was concluded that federal universities have autonomy, but suffer interference in the autonomy of their financial management. This article does not defend absolute and unrestricted autonomy, since art. 70 of CF/1988 established the duty of these institutions to render accounts, but points to university autonomy as a right to decide in the didactic-scientific, administrative and financial/asset management scope without interference from other bodies.

Keywords : Autonomy; Federal Universities; Financial Management.

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