[The university: protagonist or antagonist of the health revolutions?]

In this work, different aspects of the ambivalence presented by the university will be analyzed. On the one hand, there exists the difficult job of breaking away from the administrative structures within, plus, the fact that the university itself must stimulate educational advancement; on the other hand, the University has an obligation to society to adequately handle the resources assigned to it, and, at the same time, maintain its academic and administrative autonomy. The challenges which confront the university are: to ensure the continuation of superior education and to establish a more reliable relationship with the community with respect to health, above all. The current goal is to better qualify professionals and, at the same time, have them feel an obligation to society to establish a spirit of public service; in this sense, the university should be considered neither protagonist nor antagonist, since it does not function in an isolated way. The various health institutions together with the university should define their objectives as a whole in order to establish an efficient system. Finally, with regard to the subject of health, the university as well as the state and the community must unite in order to accomplish the changes which have stimulated the World Health Organization.