Democratization of higher education: nexuses between the affirmation of excellence and the challenge of recognition

Abstract

Brazilian federal public universities are undergoing an important process of democratization. Assured mainly by Law 12.711 / 2012, it exposes new dynamics and contradictions. This article discusses the relationship between academic excellence and institutional recognition for new audiences. The empirical basis consists of eight interviews with managers who hold prominent academic positions in a public university which, according to its official documents, is  committed to academic excellence. For the discussion of the data, we turn to the idea of academic excellence and the notion of recognition. They support the understanding that one is dealing with an institutional universe strained between the goal of being excellent and exercising its social function. To fulfill them, the university needs to develop ways of dealing with non-traditional student audiences, which are increasingly present in the daily institutional. We conclude that the process of democratization in an institution that seeks affirmation based on academic excellence needs to reaffirm practices that offer conditions for the new student audiences to achieve, beyond access, spaces of prestige and academic success.