The diversification tendency of the tertiary educational system examined at an international level. The term tertiary education points to a change in the orientation on the meeting of demands. Instead of a rigid hierarchy of courses, curricula and institutions, there is a search for more flexible and interconnected learning processes. Taking international experience for reference, the main focus are changes that occurred in the university educational system after the Regulatory Law on National Education (LDBN) was passed in 1996. Is it possible to find a diversification process of the tertiary educational system in Brazil? On the one hand, the idea of diversification at its various levels encounters many different kinds of resistances and it seems to shock the established institutional culture. On the other, the legal alterations and the new open alternatives, stripped of the pertinently implemented funding programs, run the risk of becoming frustrated by the resistance of the system, or by its corruption.
Diversification; Tertiary educational system; Interconnected structures; System flexibility