Higher Education in Latin America
Issues of Efficiency and Equity
Description:... Enrollments in Latin American universities increased tenfold in the past two decades. Government spending, however, has not kept pace with enrollment demand. Increased higher educationn enrollments have been accompanied by reduced instructional quality in many countries. Teacher salaries are too low to attract and keep scholars dedicated to full time instruction and research. At the same time, private and social returns to higher educationn have declined, and unemployment rates have increased for college graduates. External efficiency can be raised through improvements in the quality of instruction, and by providing students with the data required to make informed career choices. The benefits of higher educationn still accrue primarily to children from higher income brackets. Children from lower income homes lack the academic preparation to gain entrance to the public university. Thus lower income students are often more likely to pay for their educationn (government financed higher education subsidies being skewed in favor of higher income families). Generalizations about higher educationn ignore the many success stories. These include innovations to reduce instructional costs, increase cost recovery etc. These success stories can be used as models to improve efficiency and equity.
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