In recent decades, the gross enrollment rate in higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean increased from around 25 percent in 2000 to 62 percent in 2020[1]. Due to the significant increase in the gross enrollment rate, since the 2000s, more than 2,300 new higher education institutions have been created and 30,000 new programs have been developed (Ferreyra, Avitabile & Paz, 2017). Undoubtedly, the increase in university admission rates has led to the adoption of decisive policies aimed at expanding access to higher education to the majority of its population, especially those with a medium or low family income. One of those policies is free access to universities.
In several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Cuba, and Nicaragua, free higher education is a reality through public universities. In a free education system, the student community has the possibility of attending public universities without having to endure any monthly payment to complete their higher education. In other words, the free education system could be considered as a free or public system where the state assumes the total cost or the majority cost for the education of the students, using government funds; for example, taxpayer taxes.
It is important to note that to this day there is still a debate about whether free higher education is a human right. For example, in the 1950s, Marshall (1950) affirmed that all citizens have civil rights and social rights, to live as civilized beings under the norms of their society in order to raise their social and economic status. Consequently, with the massification of higher education and new programs being created, free education, from a philosophical and moral perspective, is currently perceived as a human right of citizens.
Therefore, education as a human right, and in the search to serve a student population that is diversified in terms of economic income, the public university becomes an option for the masses. A general exhortation across borders is that educating the masses and developing skills in them is highly correlated with the progress of any country. However, public education presents a dynamic of unequal distribution of opportunities. Since the educational opportunity market for education is imperfect, some people may have to rely on public education, the quality of which consequently depends on a country’s spending levels. These spending levels have a significant impact on important aspects of academic work.
In higher education, there are important aspects to which universities place a lot of attention. Some relevant aspects are enrollment, retention and completion rates, dropout, and quality issues. Although these problems are faced both in public universities and in private universities; these aspects are more salient in public education. In terms of retention and graduation, according to the study by Ferreyra, Avitabile, & Paz (2017), graduation rates in Latin America are a worrying indicator that some things are not working quite well, since less than half of all young people, who start their higher education programs, manage to graduate between the ages of 25 and 29 and the statistics are worse for new entrants.
In terms of quality, the data is mixed in relation to public education versus private education. One variable to measure the quality of an institution is public opinion. The power of public opinion on the quality of universities is clearly evident in the growing influence of rankings. Initially limited to North America, the rankings today permeate all types of higher education institutions in both developed and developing countries (Salmi, 2017, as cited in Gomez, 2020).
Although rankings can be incomplete information variables in terms of measuring the quality of universities, this ranking offers opportunities for many people; for example, applying to a recognized graduate school, for international mobility, or for obtaining a job with a good salary. For institutions, this measurement allows them to take corrective action to meet international “ranking” criteria and governmental or social demands, to make educational institutions competitive, to attract the best, or for financial gain.
One of the sources most used by universities to validate the quality of their institutions is THE rankings, which is the data provider that supports university excellence worldwide. The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings include more than 1,700 universities in 104 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date. These rankings are highly recognized, earning the trust of the student community, faculty, governments, and academic experts around the world. Rankings, as mentioned above, serve to increase the reputation of institutions, which helps them to obtain profits or financing, either through the private or government sector.
Worldwide, private or prestigious universities such as Oxford, Harvard, or Cambridge continue to lead THE rankings, which makes these universities to be considered the best in the world. Although debatable, most people would choose to study at prestigious or private universities if they could afford it. In general, private universities continue to top the rankings significantly compared to public universities globally. In the case of Latin America, the panorama is different.
In the year 2022, THE report shows that “the countries with the best-positioned institutions are Brazil with 72 universities, followed by Chile (30), Colombia (29), Mexico (26), Ecuador (13) and Peru (10) (Ellis, 2022, para. 5). In the top 10, Pontificia Universidad de Chile leads the list for the fourth consecutive year, but Brazil is the best-performing country overall. Brazil also has the highest average score for teaching and the highest average score for research. Of the first 10 best-rated universities in Latin America, 7 are from Brazil, of which the majority are considered public.
The case of public universities in Brazil is an interesting case. The fact that public universities have great prestige in Latin America and are highly rated is worth analyzing. The Brazilian government seems to invest large funds in the promotion and development of higher education in relation to different aspects (e.g., teaching, research) to make universities competitive internationally and have a highly qualified academic community. Different institutions at the federal and state level have a great push within higher education. For example, CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) have promoted various postgraduate programs and scientific research to enter effusively on the international scene.
Consequently, it could be argued that the key to quality higher education is the significant investment of funds to promote, manage and permanently improve the quality of services offered to the educational community, at different levels. Both the highly ranked private and public universities globally seem to share that in common. There is an economic push, a great investment in teaching, research, the preparation of academic personnel, and citations, among other aspects.
Therefore, if public universities wish to be nationally and internationally competitive with private or prestigious universities, they will need to focus on issues that help address declining enrollment rates, declining student retention and completion rates, and/or place an increased focus on applied learning and employability of graduates. In this way, they will be able to fully or partially fulfill the promise of educating the masses and developing skills in the population that are highly correlated with the progress of any country. After all, in the global culture, the university, like other educational institutions, is now expected to invest its capital in the knowledge market.
[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRR.FE?locations=ZJ
References
- Ellis, R. (Julio 14. 2022). Latin America University Rankings 2022: results announced. The Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latin-america-university-rankings-2022-results-announced
- Ferreyra, M. M., Avitabile, C., & Paz, F. H. (2017). At a crossroads: higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. World Bank Publications.
- Gomez, M. (2020). Supporting English language learning: pedagogical perspectives of translanguaging in English language teaching at higher education in Brazil [Doctoral thesis, Universidade Estadual de Londrina]. BDTD. https://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UEL_684480409fe4d83800f17ae31df14393
- Marshall, T.H. (1950). Citizenship and Social Class: And Other Essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
