UAB's Reflex on Cities and Local Support Centers to Distance Education

The associated support centers constitute privileged spaces, in the offering of courses at a distance, in which students can look for help to solve their doubts and to deal with themes of administrative or academic issues, and which are part in the operational structure of a number of renowned institutions in that teaching modality. In Brazil and for the Open University of Brazil (Universidade Aberta do Brasil – UAB), these centers were called Face-to-face Support Poles (Polos de Apoio Presencial). The poles originated from the articulation, interaction and effetivation of a partnership among the three governmental levels (federal, state and city) with the Public Institutions of Higher Education (Instituições Públicas de Ensino Superior – IPES), linked to the UAB system. The presence of a faceto-face support pole together with its diverse organizational and structural factors, and with the offering of courses by the IPES, created a new social and human development movement in the cities or regions in which it was installed. The present paper aims at pointing those essencial aspects and the main reflexes generated with the installation of UAB support poles in the cities in which the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina – UFSC, and the Instituto Federal de Tecnologia de Santa Catarina – IFSC function.