The transformation of higher education in Latin America: From elite access to massification and universalisation

Abstract

Using the latest information available on the recent evolution of Latin American higher education and following Trow’s hypothesis on the and cultural effects of access expansion, we analyze the impact of massification and universalization of national systems in the region and how these changes have fundamentally altered their institutional platforms in a context of advanced academic capitalism. Based on these developments, we explore how Latin American higher education, especially after consolidating a growing private sector, is currently moving away from the previously dominant idea of universities as institutions for educating societies’ elites, an idea that is now being replaced by the increasing acknowledgment of the essential role of academic organizations in meeting demands for access to information, knowledge, job market qualifications and social mobility. Throughout this process, the very concept of university has changed radically, leading to mixed positive and negative reactions among the region’s academics and intellectuals.