The hydra and its heads: analysis of four representations about the university

Abstract

The university, when appreciated in a deep perspective, presents great changes over time and according to the culture in which it is inserted. The purpose of this study is to determine whether in the moral representations of what the university should be through moral social representations, which are strengthened in historical moments but which never fail to say what the university is or should be. The research was carried out through documentary research with rules and reports from UFRGS, with the aim of showing how these paradigms are reflected in the different documents involved in management. The result was four moral representations: a school, the republican, the democratic and the utilitarian, which gives the idea that, even though it is an institution itself, the university has so much internal variability that it is possible to compare it with the Hydra, mythological snake that had multiple heads.