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Session Submission Summary

Highlighted session: Higher education, development, and sustainability in Latin America

Mon, April 15, 1:30 to 3:00pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Bay (Level 1), Seacliff A

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

In the 1960s economic growth was emphasized in the conceptualization of development and the role of education through schooling, skills training, and literacy was deemed essential to achieve it. Privatization, productivity, modernity, consumption, and competition as measures of market-oriented economic growth have been prevalent in decision-making in most sectors worldwide. Higher education (HEd) has experienced pressures to increase productivity through research products (articles in indexed journals, patents) (Aupetit, 2007), consumption (incremented access driven by growing numbers of private providers, which has brought concerns about quality and responses through accreditation) (Balán, 2013), consumption (commodification of knowledge) (Gacel-Ávila, 2012, Shahjahan & Morgan, 2016), modernization (efficiency, neutrality, through the incorporation of learning technologies, big data, quantitative measures, innovation, transference to the productive sector) (Balán, 2013), and competition (e.g., for students, funding, and recognition) (Shin et al., 2011). Massification and diversification have been consequences of the expansion of HEd systems (Rama, 2009a, 2009b). However, counterarguments and concerns arise about long-term costs and how sustainable such growth is and how much community service and collaboration happen in HEd in this context (Delgado, 2011, 2015). The most recent Regional Conference on HEd in Latin America (CRES) took place in Cordoba, Argentina (June 2018) as part of the 100th-anniversary celebration of the Cordoba university movement, which prompted reforms throughout the region. The CRES was organized by the UNESCO Institute for HEd in Latin America (IESALC). Its declaration reaffirms Latin America’s commitment to the Sustainable Millennium Goals by encouraging countries to increase access to HEd while assuring equal opportunity, promoting multiculturality, and supporting completion of studies. One of the thematic axes of the CRES was HEd sustainability for which several papers were presented (Henríquez Guajardo, 2018; IESALC et al., 2018). This panel will analyze challenges and achievements of Latin American and Caribbean HEd systems and institutions in the context of development and sustainability as promoted at the CRES. The panel is collaborative effort between members of the CIES Latin America and Higher Education SIGs. It will start with a brief introduction of the general topic by the panel organizer and will include presentations on international student mobility at an Argentinean university; the impact of government-funded projects on innovation in Mexico; partnerships, knowledge transfer, and collaborative programming in Panama; university "Extensión" and transfer offices in Chile and Colombia; and a revised analysis of the factors that prompted the University of Cordoba reform movement.

References
Aupetit, Silvie Didou. (2007). “Evaluación de la productividad científica y reestructuración de los sistemas universitarios de investigación en América Latina.” Educación Superior y Sociedad (UNESCO-IESALC) 12(1): 1-18.
Balán, Jorge. (2013). “Latin American higher education systems in a historical and comparative perspective.” In Jorge Balán, editor. Latin America’s new knowledge economy. Higher education, government, and international collaboration, pp. vii-xx. New York: Institute for International Education.
Delgado, Jorge Enrique. (2011). Journal publication in Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela: university responses to global, regional, and national pressures and trends. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, School of Education. ISSN 2153-9669. Available at: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/9049/.
Delgado, Jorge Enrique. (2015). “Latin American Private Universities in the Context of Competition and Research Productivity.” In Gustavo Gregorutti, and Jorge Enrique Delgado, editors. Private Universities in Latin America: Research and Innovation in the Knowledge Economy, pp. 27-49. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gacel-Ávila, Jocelyn. (2012). “Comprehensive Internationalisation in Latin America.” Higher Education Policy 25: 493-510.
Henríquez Guajardo, Pedro (coordinator). (2018). El papel estratégico de la educación superior en el desarrollo sostenible de América Latina y el Caribe. Córdoba, Argentina: UNESCO IESALC, Universidad de Córdoba.
Instituto Internacional de Educación Superior en América Latina (IESALC). (2018). III Conferencia Regional de Educación Superior para América Latina y el Caribe. Declaración. Córdoba, Argentina: UNESCO IESALC, Ministerio de Educación, Consejo Interuniversitario Nacional, Universidad de Córdoba.
Rama, Claudio. (2009a). Paradigmas emergentes, competencias profesionales y nuevos modelos universitarios en América Latina. San Luis: Nueva Editorial Universitaria.
Rama, Claudio. (2009b). Tendencias de la educación superior en América Latina y el Caribe en el siglo XXI. Desautonomización, desgratuitarización, desnacionalización, despresencialización. Lima: Asamblea Nacional de Rectores.
Shahjahan, Riyad A., and Clara Morgan. (2016). “Global competition, coloniality, and the geopolitics of knowledge in higher education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 37(1): 92-109.
Shin, Jung Cheol, and Robert K. Toutkoushian. (2011). “The past, present, and future of university rankings.” In Jung Cheol Shin, Robert K. Toutkoushian, and Ulrich Teichler, editors. University rankings: Theoretical basis, methodology and global higher education, pp. 1-16. Dordrecht: Springer.

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