The Latin American University Tradition

Definition

“Main traits and most lasting influences of the history of Higher Education in American independent nations that once were colonies of Spain and Portugal”.

Five Centuries in a Nutshell

Already in the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquerors transplanted to America the medieval university. In the nineteenth century, the new independent countries of Latin America imported (partially) the French model of Higher Education. In the twentieth century, the University Reform Movement fostered an original model of a socially committed university in a peripheral region. In the last decades, while Latin America tries not very successfully to cope with the new centrality of advanced knowledge in social relations, its Higher Education has expanded and diversified remarkably. Main influences for attempted changes come (again) from central countries. But the original tradition is still present.

The Colonial University

Universities were created in Spanish-dominated America a few decades...