Expansão do Ensino Superior como estratégia de desenvolvimento local: um olhar sobre os efeitos socioeconômicos da instalação do Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Semiárido da Universidade Federal de Campina Grande na cidade de Sumé-PB

Abstract

The Brazilian Higher Education Institutions have always been concentrated in state capitals and in large urban centers, industrialized and socially and economically developed regions. The REUNI enabled municipalities in remote areas of the country to receive these public teaching equipment, which brought new perspectives on education, culture and development. Thus, this dissertation sought to analyze the paths taken by the Federal University of Campina Grande, when the Center for Sustainable Development of the Semi-Arid in the city of Sumé/PB was implemented and how they affected and affect to date the possible opportunities, expectations, perceptions and perspectives of socioeconomic development for the region. In order to carry out the research, educational, social, economic and financial data were collected from the municipality of Sumé, in the period before and after the campus implementation, with other data coming from questionnaires that were applied to actors who experienced the CDSA/UFCG planning, current employees of the Institution and municipalities that have decision-making power in the current scenario. The data showed that there was an improvement in the indices analyzed after the installation of the campus in the municipality, especially in the variables related to the oscillation of municipal GDP, job creation, local financial movements and the increase of enrollments in secondary and higher education, signaling that the institution has contributed positively to the development of the region. However, the greatest prominence is not in the indicators, but in the perceptions of the academic and local community about the positive effects of CDSA. Suggested measures go in the direction of CDSA to develop an Institutional Development Plan, to close partnerships with other local actors in order to better understand their demands and suggestions, and to develop more research and projects to optimize their effects of regional performance.