HIGHER EDUCATION: RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OR OPEN TO SOCIETY?

This article is the result of research developed as an End of Course Work at the State University of Santa Cruz, BA, at the end of the degree in Biological Sciences. The aim is to understand the importance given by scholars for the relation between teaching and society. For this, we interviewed a group of graduates of this course during the first period in 2010. Regarding the research methodology, we adopted a qualitative approach because it allows greater freedom for the interviewer to express their opinions. From the analysis of responses to the questionnaires, we noted a constant criticism of the lack of daily contextualization between education and social issues in the academic space, the privilege given to research instead of teaching, advocating the assimilation of the content in a decorative beyond the methodological difference between the teachers and the teaching of subjects related to Biological Sciences. The interviewed students suggested that teachers need to take a position against social problems as well as lead and develop in students personal values, thus leaving the simplistic perspective that has resulted in the formation of excessively technical individuals.