MULTIVERSITY: the obsolescence of the university profile

Abstract

The emergence of coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has caused controversy over the university's functions. Society demands scientific and technological solutions from the university. Part of the university agrees and takes advantage of the emergence of COVID-19 to provide services, increase visibility and prestige, and popularize the university's third mission. Other sectors of the university reject society's demand, claiming that the university's function is to produce and make available knowledge, hence should only meet demands that fit this function. In the Mozambican context, as suggested, the lack of research programs, intellectual and financial investment prevent the university from meeting the demands and expectations of society, which finances and needs it most, in this period of emergence of COVID-19. The management of these tensions in the university, benefits from the autonomy of the institution and its members, which, combining internal and external interests, select the diverse demand, sometimes conflicting, creating the “multiversity”, a concept that suggests the obsolescence of the university concept, with homogeneous profile. Examining the model of allocation of State Budget to public universities in Mozambique, it is not possible to identify the priority of each institution in relation to the university mission: teaching, research or extension. Therefore, the homogeneity of the university profile is not proven. The annual budgets of each university, the diversity and complexity of the demands and expectations from society, suggest that Mozambican universities have different profiles, adopt specific missions and fully meet some demands and not all.