Educación superior e investigación: El papel de la universidad en la transformación social

The article analyzes the role of university research at the present time, based on three fundamental aspects: 1) The role of higher education within the global context, where the university has joined the scientific-modern vision of knowledge, forging professionals from an eminently instrumental and utilitarian rationality of knowledge. 2) The role of university research and its social relevance 3) The possibilities of university research to contribute to sustainable development and the strengthening of collective rights. What is expressed has as a sine qua non condition the transcending of the predominant Cartesian rationality in academic spaces, which conceives reality in an atomized and fragmented way, without considering the complex network of events, actions and interactions that are intertwined in the phenomenal world. This necessary epistemological turn in university investigative praxis favors a theoretical and practical approach to social problems, understanding social reality as an indivisible whole, with an ethical orientation based on the values of sustainability. In this way, the university can give a more effective response to the social demand of authentically linking itself with its community social context, and actively participating in the resolution of its problems.