The ideas of capitalism regarding economic development present education as a major factor for competitiveness as well as for the development of global economies. Therefore, a number of State actions materialized in plans, programs, and normative instruments establish connections between education, knowledge, and development, such actions being conformed to the economic demands. Higher education, as analyzed in this dissertation, has been impacted by the mediations of capitalist sociability which incorporates science, innovation, and technology, as much as the preparation of qualified human resources, as strategy for the widening of accumulation and concentration of capital, and as an element for global economic competitiveness. Public universities in particular are incorporated to the dynamics of capitalist reproduction through an approximation with the entrepreneurs and the market, by means of public-private partnerships (PPP). Such a phenomenon has been occurring regularly, and brings implications for the expansion, and the financing of institutions. The research herein submitted sought to investigate the socioeconomic consequences of the deployment of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam Complex (HDC) in the Amazon, in the context of the amplification and reproduction of capital in the region, as well as its repercussion for the policies relative to the expansion and financing of the Para Federal University – UFPA; for such purposes contracts and formal agreements signed between the University and the construction company of the power plant (Norte Energia S.A.) were analysed. The research methodology was based on the contributions of historic-dialectic materialism. Case study was chosen as the pertinent technique. Literature review and document analysis have subsidized the investigative process. The working hypothesis stated that changes, in the socioeconomic scenario, engendered by capitalism as well as by market values and principles have been progressively incorporated by public universities; products and services are requested from these latter by corporations and economic groups involved in the implementation of projects. The State acts in this configuration as mediator of the relationships between public institutions of higher education and the market, by both encouraging partnerships and disseminating the logic of autonomy, anchored in the public institution's capacity to diversify its sources of funding. Within such scheme, market’s demands become central in the bearing of the expansion policy adopted by the studied university - UFPA. Partial results of the ongoing research evidenced that cities and villages in the area of direct influence of the HDC Belo Monte endure poverty, inequality, violence, and poor access to higher education. As for expansion and funding, new resources have been raised by UFPA, which have been allowing for investment in facilities, equipments, and for the development of research and extension activities, by way of faculty’s projects submitted to, and approved by both the Plan for Sustainable Regional Development of Xingu and the Norte Energia S/A.
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