The text analyses the behavior of expenditures of the University of Brasília (UNB), emphasizing its own revenues, in the context of the financing of Federal Institutions of Higher Education (FISHE), and deals with the university support foundations in preliminary proposals for a higher education reform bill of President Lula Government Administration. The public funding of UNB does not differ substantially from that of FISHE, in which falling resources relative to enrollment growth have prevailed; these are viewed within the framework of a hegemonic crisis of the university and of policies aimed to heterogeneity in the federal system. UNB has a high share of expenditures with its own revenues, and has been increasingly dependent on them, but most has been used up in their production, indicating that public funding is the key to quality standards. The first proposal for a higher education bill brought remarkable innovations for the financing of FISHE, but the second rejected many of the original innovations. It demanded transparency on the actuation of the university support foundations, and their subordination to parent institutions; it also remotely waved towards a future reform of the rules governing the management of FISHE finance.
University own revenues; Financing of higher education; University of Brasilia; Federal Institutions of Higher Education (FISHE); Higher education reform
