Políticas educativas em contextos globalizados: a expansão do ensino superior em Portugal e no Brasil

This article analyzes the configuration that higher education takes in the context of the changes occurring in recent decades on the international scene, emphasizing the cases of Portugal and Brazil. This analysis is based on the assumption that higher education institutions face, in the current historical moment, new challenges to meet the demands of globalized societies, which among other features, gives a centrality to knowledge. More specifically, the article discusses the different strategies adopted by Portugal and Brazil to promote the expansion process of higher education, taking institutional diversification as the main issue. Despite the existence of global trends on the expansion policies in higher education, there is the need to analyze them taking into account the specificities of each country, both in regard to higher education expansion process and their integration in the globalized economy.