State control over higher education has been provided for in the Brazilian legal system since the establishment of the republic, with university autonomy having been the object of six reforms of higher education and various federal decrees up until the federal constitution of 1988, which upheld it in Article 207. In a country with a limited and recent academic tradition, the degree of understanding regarding autonomy as a condition inherent to the activities of teaching and research is low, especially because the autonomous operation of institutions will always occur in relation to the state, which grants them their autonomy. (Contains 12 notes.)