摘要:Public policies in education are, among other things, one of the interventions strategies most forceful of the Lula government. With respect to higher education, the expansion of federal system and too of vacancies of private institution occurred alongside to the adoption of ENEM. This article aims to analyze the policy expansion of higher education developed by the Brazilian federal government, emphasizing ProUni, UAB and Reuni. Through documentary research and literature review, and the authors' experience as teachers in a newly founded public university, the expansion is examined as a historic opportunity for the democratization of access to the university, allowing processes upward social mobility in a scenario of revaluation of the inductive role of the state.