Higher Education And The Open University Of Brazil In Amazon Contexts: Social Mobility, Development, The Role Of Universities And Capability Approach Theories

This paper outlines some results from a PhD research concerning Higher Education, The Open University of Brazil and Distance Learning underlining issues about Social mobilityand development. The context is two Learning Centres delivering undergraduate courses from five public universities through The Open University of Brazil (UAB, abbreviation in Portuguese) consortium in MarajóIsland, State of Pará, Brazil. Discussions on the access to public Higher Education are foregrounded on the principles and terms of democracy, citizenship, and human development based on Amartya Sen´s Capability Approach Theories.By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, public higher education and distance education reached the back lands in Brazil, where schooling may be considered a conquest for the local population and as the public policy of the State which upgrades numerically higher education in the country. Current problematization is therefore related to social, cultural, and economic significances from educational policy on local population. Results show thatUABLearning Centres, playsan important role in people´s life opportunities, especially those marked by social conditions. Educational data reveal an increase in teachers´ qualifications, in Human Development Index and in the transformation of cultural capital into social and economic capital described by the interviewed people.