A View from Latin America: Two Generations of Reforms on Higher Education; Towards a New Decade of Collaboration

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of how international educational policy has influenced policy formation in Latin America and tries to determine to what extent two generations of reforms in higher education have served the needs of Latin America towards development and social inclusion. The chapter focuses on the political and institutional contexts in Latin America over the last 20 years and enquires as to how the international tertiary education agenda has been formulated, and to what extent the reforms implemented have achieved their objectives. It is argued that policy formation is determined by conflicting views about the role of higher education on development. Likewise, implementation processes face different approaches to legitimizing an international cooperation mandate that appears to ignore pressing local policy issues such as equity and inclusion, or quality and access. A new scenario of openness of higher education systems where all stakeholders involved take part in the policy formation debate, cooperation at intergovernmental level is the norm, and collaboration among higher education institutions is the course of action is suggested.