This paper examines the quotas system, affirmative action from a public policy aimed at ensuring access to higher education for broken down social segments. In Brazil, the glaring social inequalities, many prejudices, the low quality of education offered in public schools of basic and secondary education, the poverty and marginalization deepen and perpetuate the discrimination making difficult the access to higher education. In this context, the system of quotas, since that is not based only on the criterion of race, without hurting the university autonomy and with mechanisms to ensure the learning and shareholder's permanence, can help rescue the dignity of the human person, repairing historical injustices against a certain social group and implement the constitutional provision of equal rights and opportunities for all citizens.
public policies; affirmative action; social responsibility; quotas; university; education