Universidade e desenvolvimento: o transbordamento de conhecimento como indutor da mudança institucional

Abstract

In the last two decades of the twenty-first century, knowledge has been seen as a prime factor for competitiveness, as a result of the accelerated technological changes brought up by the rise of the international technical-scientific environment. Thus, many governments have begun to invest in universities as transformative institutions. These have come to be valued given their character as disseminators of technical and scientific knowledge, which can lead to processes of individual changes and consequently the development of regions. In this context, the Federal Pampa University established in the region of the Campaign and West Frontier of Rio Grande do Sul, is characterized by the low economic dynamics, fruit of a historical construction. The purpose of this exploratory-descriptive study was to analyze the impact of knowledge, generated by the university, on the change of habits of thought inducing regional development. After the review of the literature, four pillars were identified through which the knowledge of the university spreads, inducing the long term development of the regions where they are inserted. It was also observed that the individual attained by the university is the guiding thread of this knowledge. Thus, the pillars of knowledge - human capital, technology, know-how and science - were analyzed through the veblenian old institutionalist bias, which allowed the approximation of the knowledge contained in the graduates of the university. In order to understand the process of development of the regions via university, a mixed method of research was used. The qualitative approach relied on documentary and bibliographic research. Scientific documents and materials were collected to indicate the evolution of Unipampa as well as to identify in the actions of extension potentialities of change of habits of thought of the individuals reached beyond the walls of the university. For the quantitative approach, a questionnaire was constructed where the two theoretical references were merged. The questions sought to identify the habits and the change of habits of the same, as well as specific characteristics of profile. The data collection took place concomitantly, and the respective analyzes were done separately. Regarding the results, in view of a population of 6326 graduates, a feedback of 930 questionnaires was obtained, allowing to affirm the existence of habits of thought foreseen in the pillars of human capital, technology, know-how and science, which appear in the forms of thinking and acting of the graduates, inserted in different institutional environments. It was also confirmed that the habits that the graduates claimed to have been fruits of their passing through the university. It was also identified that 65,30% of the graduates remained in the region, being this second Felsenstein (1996) a fundamental factor for the development of the same. The qualitative approach showed that the evolution of the university, besides consolidating a commitment to the region, focuses on a greater dissemination of knowledge. Complementarily, the extension actions were observed, which allowed to affirm the existence of a potentiality in changing habits of thought in the community served, regarding the pillars of regional development, since they occur through a strong sensitization and in a process character what induces changes. In integrating the results of the two approaches, it is understood that the university leverages the development of the region on several fronts, among them the evolution of the institution, the extension actions it promotes or the training of graduates. Therefore, the university's great contribution to the development of the region is through knowledge, to change pre-established habits of thought, leading the graduates and potentially the community affected by the activities of extension to new ways of thinking the region.