KNOWLEDGE, MANIPULATION, AND POWER: THE UNIVERSITY AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION. Recibido: Junio 2014 Revisado: Septiembre 2014 Aceptado: Octubre 30 de 2014

The text is a reflection on the University as a social institution, based on several studies developed on whose findings are made evident, firstly, the interest of some stances by turning it into a scenario of manipulation and control, by reducing it to the rationality of the functional agencies, against the very dynamic that the University establishes as a social institution whose base is mobilized from the social imaginary significations. In this process, it is shown from the logic of the theory of the social imaginary, the manner how the University is configured and institutionalized at a constant pressure, between knowledge and control, between function and institution, and the foundations, which define it and position it as a social imaginary institution are defined.