The university reforms underway in Brazil, specifically those initiated during the administration of President Lula da Silva, inaugurated a new stage in the (re)configuration of public universities in the country, which directly affected the academic administrative, and policy structures of these institutions. The REUNI (Support Program for the Restructuring and Expansion of Public Universities) is an example of the current context of such reforms, and is presented as a major action on the part of the federal government aimed at expanding access to, and permanence in public universities. This thesis is the result of ongoing research in the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). The implementation of the REUNI on the UFPA Altamira University Campus was the object of the research, which aimed to investigate the impact of the program on issues related to access to higher education, as well as those concerning university financing and management. Research methodological tools and procedures included literature review, documentary analysis, and case study. The theoretical and methodological approaches are founded upon the contributions of historical and dialectical materialism. Preliminary results indicate that, the massive adherence to the REUNI by federal universities notwithstanding, the set of indicators agreed upon in the Program term of accesion has not been fully achieved, notably those of quantitative character. At the Federal University of Para, despite the broad normative framework designed and issued to give substance to actions and goals of the Program, and effectiveness to its indicators such as graduation and expansion of the undergraduate programs, the corresponding results remain, so far, below the goals agreed upon with the Ministry of Education (MEC). Moreover, important changes have been observed in the dynamics of the institution management, which has enwrapped the administrative procedures by ways of rationality, flexibility and efficiency, in short, by a results-oriented management. Research results evidenced that the current conformation assigned to public universities resides both on the redefinition of the concepts of public and private and on the progressing erosion of university autonomy; also, they offered evidence regarding the ongoing expansion without the corresponding necessary financial apportion, and without the guaranteed standards of academic excellence, historically assigned to public universities.
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