Comentarios aos “desafios da educação superior na América Latina”| Comments to “The challenges of higher education in Latin America”

One thought on “Comentarios aos “desafios da educação superior na América Latina”| Comments to “The challenges of higher education in Latin America””

1. Thought on the Simon and responding comments. Dan Levy.
   Years ago a popular ad portraying a cocktail party was “Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton,”at which point all the chatter stops and guests crane their necks to hear what the client says, for “When E.F. Hutton speaks, everybody listens.” Of course these days nobody in his right mind would say such a thing about any investment company. But the following remains as true as ever for the wise among us scholars of Latin American higher education and society: “When Simon speaks, everybody listens.” This we see in the interesting comments responding to Simon’s commentary. As always, Simon asks the right questions where others in the universities, governments, int’l agencies are stuck too much in the easy answers.
   I’m hard put to find stuff to disagree with in Simon’s statement. I think he’s got it right on matters from changing employment to the roles of private and public. In emphasis I’m inclined to see the realities such as differentiation described as preceding the 90s, tho accelerated then. Maybe I’m decreasingly comfortable with the juxtaposition of elite and mass, tho I employed those concepts in much of my work on Latin America. With Juan Carlos, Andres, and other “PROPHE” colleagues, we are focused on sub-categorizing (particularly on the private side) among the bulk of dubious “demand-absorbers,” serious non-elite institutions, “semi-elite” institutions, and “elite” institutions (the last with a viability in Latin Am that finds little parallel outside the Americas).
   Tho not a real Latin American, I share with Simon, Jose Joaquin and others a sense of not just chagrin but pain at watching too much of the “same old, same old” in much rhetoric, even alongside ample changes on the ground. Chagrin and pain to the extent that the reality seems worse in LA, tho not absent elsewhere, and certainly not complete in LA. However, I also agree with Juan Carlos’ less bleak overview. One of my favorite lecture topics for years used to be The Good News on Latin Am Higher Education. Probably I’ve gotten too crusty lately. Just to maintain crusty profile, however, I prefer to juxtapose less the need for expansion and excellence, than the widespread need for expansion with decent quality, then with an upper “crust” of excellence.
   On Private Higher Ed, clearly we all realize we can’t talk of big issues in LA h ed without talking about private as well as public. JJB puts the private share at >50%, u and non-u, whereas I’ve been using with Juan Carlos a figure more like 45% but 50 wouldn’t surprise me. It Is worth noting for majority is dramatic. I’d like to get a citation. And I’m happy to see Edson’s data on Brazil, as it breaks down private by for-profit etc. What other country cases in LA do we have that lay out the legally for-profit sector? Peru? Chile for the non-universities? So much is fuzzy in Mexico and elsewhere as there is no legal for-profit h ed institution but plenty of fp reality.
   We all of us comment on Latin America. Other than the Chilean case (and not even that in all respects), where should we draw significant exceptions?

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