The work presents, from a philosophical and educational perspective, an analysis and reflection on the current situation of public higher education in Brazil, showing not only the large and ongoing process conducted by the State of its organizational and administrative reconfiguration, but also the ambiguous underlying educational policy for this process. For these reasons, it incorporates legal formulations and outlines some governmental initiatives that have sought to implement a permanent university reform pertaining to the suitability of higher education requirements of the societary capitalist neoliberal model, which implemented by the Brazilian elite during this period in history. It then goes on to clarify the fundamental dilemma experienced by Brazilian society, represented by the confrontation between an education based on the theory of human capital and an education system inspired by the theory of human emancipation. Public higher education is achieved in full by that ideological intent, taking into account its importance in the construction of social life, be it in the workplace, social life or in culture. This would make it more difficult for public universities to construct their own educational policy, as this task would place them in a struggle that would go against their ideology.
Brazilian education; higher education; university; educational policy