How the teachers-researchers of the Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the Univer- sity of Buenos Aires perceive the university autonomy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the validity of the university autonomy concept at the University of Buenos Aires (uba) facing the opening of new links between research and capital companies. To do so, three dimensions of this autonomy can be observed (corporative autonomy, autonomy of reason andfinancial autonomy). The authors suggest that the financial autonomy is currently the most valuable oneand that the attempts to reach it has oriented the uba to produce for the market, routing the research to meet private demands that put at risk the autonomy of reason. The authors also maintain that the crisis of representation experienced by its government bodies has transformed the corporative autonomy into a necessity shield for reduced groups. Based on in-depth interviews carried out to teachers-researchers in one of its research faculties, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, the authors study the way inwhich those dimensions of the university autonomy are perceived and try to find out whether those risksshow up in their perceptions or not.