EDUCATION-LATIN AMERICA: Universities Redefine Operations

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Daniel Gatti

MONTEVIDEO, Jan 21 1998 (IPS) - Faced with an increasing lack of government assistance, and the need to adapt to the changes in society’s demands, public universities in Latin America are redefining their operations in order to survive.

In most countries in the region the institutions for higher education , aften huge and under-financed, are suffering by the competition from private universities – generally more efficient and better maintained thanks to tuition fees paid by students, and contributions from the private sector.

“We are heading toward the ‘North Americanization’ of higher education,” said Argentine researcher Ana Maria Garcia Gianelli, of the Center for the Study of the State and Civil Society (CEDES) in Buenos Aires. “We will have to see whether this is compatible with the traditions of universities in Latin America and Europe.”

But the fact remains that, despite the rhetoric from governments that “Latin America should prepare itself for the era of knowledge,” higher education is rarely a priority in state budgets.

According to statistics produced by the U.N. Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), Latin American nations invest on average 1,000 dollars a year per university student – six times less than the industrialized members of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD).

Countries like Uruguay, which until recently boasted high- quality education – particularly university education – have seen government investment in education drop to very low levels. Currently, Uruguay spends 800 dollars a year on each university student.

UNESCO estimates that by the year 2025, half the population of rich countries will have enjoyed a higher education, while only 10 percent of residents of countries in the South will have been to university.

“It will be very difficult, under those circumstances, for countries in the South to embark on any kind of project for autonomous development,” said the Dean of Science Faculties in Uruguay, Mario Wschebor.

Making public universities competitive, and better equipped to impart knowledge in Latin America, requires a new way of thinking and the adoption of innovative strategies in a context which is more difficult than previous decades, according to Argentine education experts who met in a seminar last month.

The conclusions of the meeting, and the themes that were dealt with, could be applied to any country in the region, said Chilean professor, Alfonso Muga.

At the seminar, Muga demonstrated how in his country, like in the rest of Latin America, there are universities “for the rich”” and others “for the poor.”

“In Chile, there was a rapid transition from state sponsorship to the private market in 1980,” when the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) liberalized higher education, and sparked an increase of universities from eight to 243, he said.

“The two democratic government that succeeded Pinochet did not introduce any substantial changes in the model, and the State became a buyer of products more than a provider of goods, like it had been before”, said Muga.

In Chile, each student must pay an average of 2,500 dollars a year in order to attend the university. That is equal to about 50 percent of the gross national product per inhabitant – percentagewise, significantly higher than applicable to the United States.

In order to cover those costs, some prestigious universities give scholarships and loans to low-income students.

“One of the alternatives that is being evaluated is the expansion of scholarships and loans to all institutionst just to the 25 traditional universities”, said Muga.

Another country where the imposition of tuition fees is mooted is Uruguay, where higher education has been free since the beginning of the century.

The government is requiring university authorities to install such measures, so that they can be considered for some kind of supplementary aid. But the Student Federation, most of the university officials and part of the faculty are opposed to sacrificing the principle of free education.

In order to obtain the fresh funds it needs and which are no longer forthcoming from the government, schools in Uruguay are signing contracts with other government agencies or with private companies in different areas. Schools have signed more than 700 of these agreements.

At the same time, university professors’ salaries have dropped drastically.

The traditional goal of Uruguayan families to send their children to the university in order to “become somebody” now is fading from memory.

A “category five” professor (the highest level), with 20 years of experience, makes less than 1,500 dollars a month. In the private sector, the same professor could make two to four times as much money.

In Argentina, “teachers’ salaries are below the cost of opportunity (the investment required to keep someone in their post),” explained economist Jorge Delfino. “While in the market the cost of an economist is rated at ‘five’, the university pays 1.5 – and there is no sign of any change in policy concerning human capital,” he said.

At the same time, public universities in Latin America are confronting the need to redefine their programs of study. In the face of increasing unemployment, there are under great pressure (from government and the student body) to give priority to subjects that are “market-oriented,” and will allow graduates to enter into the labor market as quickly as possible.

Some sectors within the university reject this notion, arguing that although it is impossible to “turn one’s back on society,” higher education cannot sacrifice the formation “people capable of perceiving the world critically,” according to Jorge Brovetto, rector of the University of the Republic of Uruguay.

According to Argentine sociologist Rodolfo Mascardi, the university should “have sufficient flexibility to meet all the demands, both those of whom aspire to short careers that will lead to a quick insertion in the market, and those who emphasize permanent education.”

But within Latin American universities, there is a relative consensus to demand governments not to retreat from financing higher education, and consider it an “investment in the future, more than an expense,” according to Wschebor.