Universidade e a extens？o universitária: a vis？o dos moradores das comunidades circunvizinhas

the university is an institution created to meet the needs of the country. one of the strategies that the university uses to train a professional citizen is based on the university extension. the purpose of this study was to investigate the existing relationship between a university and its surrounding communities from the perspective of its inhabitants. descriptive qualitative methodology was used in the research. it was held in fortaleza, state of ceara. the research population consisted of community residents. the study began after the project was approved by the research ethics committee. results were divided into five categories to better organize the discussion. it was possible to observe that university extension plays a key role in the brazilian higher education, mainly in the formation of integration between community and university, aiming at a major transformation of our social reality.