Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná e Instituto Politécnico de Bragança: um estudo comparativo

Abstract

This paper aims to compare the universities models of the Federal University of Technology - Paraná (UTFPR) and Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), which were designed and realized. These high educational organizations focus on professional training through practical learning approaches, strongly collaborating with industries and society, promoting the development of the acting regions. Since their beginning, these institutions can suffer politics demands, implemented in Brazil and Portugal. However, there are few researches treating how high educational institutions reply these new politics demands in local contexts, without changing their university models. Therefore, this exploratory research encompasses these two cases analysis, which better represent these models in their related countries, although, there are politics, economic and social differences between Brazil and Portugal, besides differences in how high educational institutions are regulated. In Portugal, the high education system is binary, counting on universities and polytechnics, while in Brazil, there is not a system for the high education that differentiates classical universities from the only Technological University in the country, the UTFPR. The comparison that will be presented focuses on these institutions organizational experience throughout years and their behavior in front of the model designed in a political environment and new educational innovation demands. The basic hypothesis is based on Wolff’s work (1993), which exposes concerns about the university role in the second millennium, mainly about the conflicts between the educational ideals. Wolff portrayed four university ideals models, “how it should be, not how it is”, based on Max Weber, alluding the “ideal type”. These institutions official documents and semi structured interviews ones compose the documental body, which were applied to managers and politicians involved in the organization constitution process as much as in their current moment. The data were treated through the Content Analysis technique. Former, this study showed that the analyzed organizations differently reply to new political demands. The UTFPR, tended to a service supply agency as its university model, but after fourteen years since its origin and changes experienced in the political field, there was a distance from the UT designed characteristics, changing its university model. The IPB, which also was closer to the service supply agency as its university model, differently replied to the implemented politics and thus, was faithful to the ideal model of its creation, which also has helped the institution to achieve national and international acknowledgement, fulfilling its expansionist mission. The results obtained may advice the policymakers about these educational organizations characteristics to create efficiency and diversifying politics in national contexts; besides contribute to the high educational literature development, which explores responses to the new politics and change process.