We intend to discuss the university’s role in the context of the Brazilian semi-peripheral capitalism, whose enterprises seek to insert themselves competitively in the intermediary links of the world capitalism’s chain of value creation. Even though in the immediate plan this gives legitimacy to the capitalist mode of production in the country, the limited horizon of acquisition of profits impels, in the middle term, companies towards the exploitation of labor and nature. Scientific production oriented towards technological innovation could open an alternative in relation to these strategies of mere exploitation of labor and nature. Nevertheless in the Brazilian universities’ case we observe three trends that are contrary to that alternative: 1) the appropriation of science as a part of cultural sophistication of the groups who produce it; 2) the anchorage of those who produce science in the administrative structures of the State; 3) the uncritical appreciation of popular culture. Analyzing the observed trends, we discuss the possibilities of development that the university could bring to Brazilian society if it were to assume its role as a modern institution.