This essay highlights and comments some aspects of the final considerations of the National Conference on Education (2010 CONAE) with regard to higher education. To do so, it first outlines the global and Latin-American political-economical setting, by stressing the neoliberal policies imposed on the countries of the latter region, from the 1990s on. It then briefly analyses Brazilian higher education to elucidate how and to what extent such policies have impacted on it. Finally, based on its previous considerations, it succinctly analyses the references to higher education contained in the 2010 CONAE's Final Resolution. It concludes on the hope that the concretization of the National Education System will help redeeming the State's social debt as for the guarantee to provide quality education at all levels to the Brazilian people.
Higher education; National Education System; National Plan for Education; 2010 CONAE; Neoliberalism