The return of the State to higher education in Latin America: legal reforms towards a collegiate neo-statism

Abstract

In recent years Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru carried out reforms to their higher education systems. These reforms reflect dissatisfaction with the old policies which derived from the social demand to expand the access to higher education. This study analyzes such reforms and the way they reflect the market failures that affected educational quality and exacerbated inequality. Also, this paper shows the urgency of these reforms to correct deficits and build a new foundation for higher education. Evidence shows that the State gains more power by undermining the traditional concept of university autonomy.