Higher Education Federal Budget in the First Year of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador Government: Negotiations and Challenges

Abstract

The paper analyses the negotiation process around Federal Expenditure Budget for Higher Education in 2019, corresponding to the first fiscal year of the new government lead by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico. It describes the rectifications done at the Mexican Congress from the original proposal sent by the Executive, which included significant cuts on the federal budget for public higher education institutions. It also presents three challenges: compulsory higher education as established in the recently reformed Article 3 of the Mexican Constitution; the cost of free higher education, and financial sustainability of public universities.