Two different organizational reactions: The university sector in Argentina and Colombia and the neoliberal proposal

Abstract

The neoliberal reform arrived at the market of higher education with the intention of introducing private dynamics into public organizations. Through this strategy, the objective was to improve efficiency by promoting intra- and intersectoral competition. The introduction of performance funding shifted the concept of accountability for expenditures, and now public universities will be accountable for results. The expansion of the private sector as a complementary service to public higher education, and the introduction of tuition fees in non-private institutions, implied a shift of the higher education cost burden that now is shared by parents and students. Argentina and Colombia are two cases that show that not all university sectors in South America have reacted alike when the neoliberal recipe proposed this 'paradigm shift'. Even when the reform was formally declared in both countries, organizational forces inside the national university in Argentina prevented an in-depth reform. On the other hand, Colombia behaved as one of the best disciples of the neoliberal proposal, where the 'privatization' of the university sector found a better place to flourish.