Considering the way in which Higher Education is presently structured in Brazil, in a context characterized by strong demands for normative and instrumental knowledge, aiming to adjust the conducts and evaluations of the subjects to the demands of the market-place, this study seeks the advance of the analysis of the concepts of knowledge and personal development of the university student. We present in this paper an analysis of Higher Education in Brazil, emphasizing the characterization and identification of the peripheral Higher Education Institutions and the "new" student. This work presents partial results of a research that is being done on the theme "Higher Education, Literacy and knowledge".
Higher education; Peripheral higher education institutions; Undergraduate student; Knowledge