In Latin America (LATAM), socioeconomic inequality and lack of resources shape the context of educational institutions in particular ways. Programme quality and dropout rates preoccupy educationalists and governments.
A burning question for developing countries is whether low quality private higher education is better than none at all, in circumstances where public systems cannot meet soaring student demand. Brazil decided it was and set about rapidly expanding its higher education system, including by opening it to private institutions. Today the country has one of the largest private sectors in the world and it enrols a staggering 75% of all post-secondary students.
Recent years have witnessed a boom in private education opportunities across the Central American isthmus. To some, it seems that private entities cannot open classrooms fast enough. Whereas 30 years ago there were virtually no private universities, today there are more than 151 and every year more emerge.
Chile’s Ministry of Education has launched a web portal offering with unprecedented detail employment and earnings data to prospective applicants to higher education. The portal, called “Mi futuro” is a searchable database that lists hundreds of degree programs, professional and technical, from Medicine to Auto Mechanic, displaying for each program of every institution of higher education in the country the following information: drop-out rate, average time to degree, average earnings of the graduates after 4 years of graduation, current tuition fees for the program, and accreditation status of the program.
Peru has authorized two private universities to reorganize as corporations. The country's National Council for the Authorization and Operation of Universities decided last month that Peruvian Applied Sciences University and Saint Ignatius Loyola University could register as corporations while still maintaining their status as universities.
La universidad privada, contra una nueva ley de educación superior | "Los problemas no son jurídicos", dijo el presidente del Consejo de Rectores - lanacion.com
En México sólo 10 por ciento de las universidades privadas cuenta con acreditación de calidad; apenas 37 escuelas tienen carreras reconocidas por el Consejo para la Acreditación de la Educación Superior, y sólo 49 posgrados son válidos para la SEP y el Conacyt. Además, entre 2000 y 2008, a 432 instituciones se les negó el Registro de Validez Oficial y a 99 se les retiró el reconocimiento de sus planes de estudio.
Las universidades privadas surgen por exceso de demanda de estudiantes señaló el supervisor de educación superior zona 010, Moisés Torres Lechuga, pero reconoció que un porcentaje de esos alumnos deserta antes de concluir sus estudios universitarios.
A rapidly growing number of students in Mexico are attending private universities, but there are increasing concerns about the quality of many of the new institutions.
Recent years have witnessed a boom in private education opportunities across the Central American isthmus. To some, it seems that private entities cannot open classrooms fast enough. Whereas 30 years ago there were virtually no private universities, today there are more than 151 and every year more emerge.
The school is one of 24 privately owned universities that have received a failing grade from the Ecuadorean government, meaning that if they do not make major improvements they will be closed. Two government-run schools also received failing grades and may be shut down.
Hoping to improve access to higher education, Brazil is giving tax incentives to private universities that provide scholarships to needy students, with added incentives for those who are indigenous or Afro-Brazilian. Such people are far less likely to attend Brazilian universities than white students are.
A new campus rises almost every week, but critics worry that some may be 'junk universities' With its endless expanse of bleak, cinder-block tenements, this city north of the Mexican capital seems an unlikely setting for a business success story.
The Mexican government has shut down 88 private universities over the past two years for failing to comply with basic standards, education officials said this week.
Private colleges in Central America have long been viewed as little more than proprietary schools. But now they have established an accreditation system that they hope will win them respect at home and abroad.