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ABSTRACT
The literature on education and globalization states that patterns of higher education systems tend toward international convergence, and that trends such as massification, privatization and internationalization are observable in nations with different degrees of development around the world. Neo-institutionalism and world systems theory differ on whether focus should be given to international convergence or domestic adaptation. Studies addressing historical and contextual dimensions of policy diffusion are relevant as they will further specify the nature of the extranational effects on national policies. The case of Argentina’s national higher education policy is particularly relevant to this literature due to political and academic traditions that have inhibited the diffusion of many global trends into the country. This study offers a comparative historical analysis of the issues that have been prioritized in Argentina’s higher education policy over three decades (1983–2015), the strategies employed by higher education actors, and the socioeconomic and political factors that led to unique manifestations there of global trends, such as massification, privatization, and internationalization. The paper shows how Argentina’s system became massified without privatization, why privatization failed to reach the levels of other Latin American countries, and how an internationalization strategy via regionalization was a means to lockdown domestic reforms.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mercedes Botto, Marta Pini, Claudio Suasnabar, and Naureen Madhani, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Their observations helped to significantly improve this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. It is important to note that some of the authors that are cited in this study and that take higher education policy as an object of scholarly research, have also been protagonists in the processes that are analyzed. Adolfo Stubrin, for example, was one of the founding members of the Junta Coordinadora Nacional, a youth organization that supported President Alfonsin (1983–1989) and mobilized university students. He also participated in Alfonsin's administration as Secretary of Education. Juan Carlos del Bello, who was the first Secretary of Higher Education Policy and driving force behind the 1990s reform, is also included as one of the references. This evidences that some scholarly sources were also key actors during the periods analyzed.
2. Globalization is understood here as ‘a set of political-economic arrangements for the organization of the global economy … [where] adherence to its principles is brought about by political economic leverage’ (Dale Citation2000, 436). For the purposes of this study it is important to highlight that ‘globalization is a political-economic phenomenon, not purely an economic one. This has also led to the creation of new forms of supranational governance that carry unprecedented influence’ (Dale Citation2000, 437).
3. Working-class political organizations and unions constituted a significant part of Peron's government coalition and his policies favored income redistribution and equity goals. It is important to note that Peron's higher education agenda was not only a strategy to equalize opportunity but also had a political motive. According to Buchbinder (Citation2010), with Peron, the linkages between the universities and the political system changed. Peron questioned the politicization of public universities, where the leadership and student activists were supporters of the UCR, the Radical Party, and were Peron's political opponents. Peron's intentions were to neutralize his opponents at the university by allowing access to the institutions for political groups that favored him.
4. According to the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), 21% of those who were victims of forced disappearance during the dictatorship were students. Students were kidnapped and most of them were killed in clandestine detention centers. The same happened with faculty, and a number of university authorities (Buchbinder Citation2010).
5. With the return to democracy, public universities elected new authorities and most of the rectors, student representatives, and members of the boards were supporters of the UCR (Buchbinder Citation2010). It is important to point out that in Argentina, university authorities are often closely aligned with a political party. This creates an environment where universities not only reflect sociopolitical dynamics but also, and most importantly, represent a very specific political constituency. The importance of public universities in this period lies in the fact that President Alfonsin's political base was fragile, and his administration had to face strong opposition in Congress, the Armed Forces, the Catholic Church, and the trade-unions (Garatte Citation2009).
6. Tuition fees for public universities were eliminated by Decree 228/83 (Balan Citation1993).
7. Enrolment in the private and public sectors went back to the pre-dictatorship proportions.
8. As a result of the economic policies of previous dictatorial governments, Argentina entered the 1980s having inherited a foreign debt crisis and record budget deficits, which resulted in its entire trade surplus being dedicated to debt servicing (Sill Citation2016). It was in this macroeconomic context that open access for higher education was implemented by the first democratic government in almost 20 years.
9. Privatization here is used in terms of incentivizing the growth of a private higher education sector. This represents a solution as it increases the number of places in the system without any increase in public funds (García de Fanelli Citation1997). In Argentina, Decree 451/73 which banned the creation of new private institutions was still in place during this period (Mignone Citation1998) and prevented the expansion of the private sector.
10. The report's predominant focus was quality, but included other issues such as governance, the need for a centralized data system, funding, etc.
11. The initial project also included the establishment of student loans, which was not approved by the Argentine government (World Bank Citation1993, Citation2004).
12. The creation of the new universities lacked rationality and justification. Particularly serious was the fact that the new universities had to compete with the existing ones for a budget that was equivalent to 0.5% of the GDP. According to Carliño and Mollis (Citation1997) the plan was that the Peronist leadership of the new universities would challenge the hegemony of the UCR in university leadership.
13. A Mexican institution, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM), organized the first regional conference on higher education, and with the founding of the journal Universidad Futura (The Future University) in 1988, it became a pioneer in the field. Following Mexico's example, in 1993 and 1996 two other important journals on higher education were founded: Pensamiento Universitario in Argentina, and Avaliação in Brazil. Additionally, during those years two major comparative studies were conducted. The first was funded by the Ford Foundation, and coordinated by scholars from Chile and Argentina. The second study was sponsored by UNESCO, and for the first time in the region, data corresponding to the higher education systems of 19 countries were compared (García Guadilla Citation2003). These findings boosted a series of follow-up studies that contributed to the growth of the field.
14. Finnemore (Citation1993) referred to similar socialization mechanisms when she studied the influence of UNESCO in the development of Science and Technology policy in the 1950s.
15. The Argentine Constitution guarantees the autarky and autonomy of public universities. It establishes that it is the Congress's responsibility to ‘enact organizational and education based laws that consolidate national unity while respecting provincial and local particularities: to ensure the inalienable responsibility of the State, the participation of family and society, the promotion of democratic values and equal opportunities without discrimination, and to ensure the principles of free and equitable state public education and the autonomy and autarky of national universities’ (author's translation, Argentine Constitution of 1994, Article 75, paragraph 19).
16. Although most university leaders opposed the introduction of tuition fees, opposition to other aspects of the reform was not as unanimous. The new universities aligned with the Peronist party embraced the aspect of the reform that incentivize institutions to seek alternative sources of funding via the sale of services, develop evaluation practices, and be more responsive to the needs of the labor market (García de Fanelli Citation1997). The Dean of the School of Medicine of the UBA advocated for quotas and entrance exams.
17. The share of enrolments in the private sector ranges from 0% in Cuba to 80% in Chile and Brazil. Most countries' private sectors comprise between 40% and 50% of enrolments. Mexico's private share of enrolments is 32% (Bjarnason et al. Citation2009). In the US, the private share remained around 20% for a few decades until the recent growth of the for-profit sector (Levy Citation2006). In 2012, the University of Phoenix, an on-line for-profit university, was the US institution with the highest enrolment (253,402 students). As a result, the private enrolment in degree-granting institutions increased to 28% (U.S. Department of Education Citation2015).
18. For example, they have restrictions to own stock or engage in any type of commercial activity that is not aligned with its foundational goal.
19. With the exception of a couple of elite institutions.
20. It is important to note that, although autonomy is a constitutional principle, it has operated as a defensive shield for a number of universities. These defensive strategy is the result of a history of tensions between the state and the universities which this paper tries to portray. Pérez Rasetti (Citation2007) argues that a quasi-political autonomy allows those institutions with more political capacity to be more ‘autonomous’ from the state than others. Government authorities, on the other hand, questioned university autonomy as a goal in and of itself, particularly because it prevented coordinated public policy and accountability in the public higher education sector (Mazzola Citation2007).
21. Between 1995 and 1999, 14 of the 34 national universities filed similar lawsuits, although only four of them were accepted by the courts. The courts ruled in favor only of UBA (38.781/05 ‘UBA c/Estado nacional s/Proceso de Conocimiento’ in Nosiglia et al. Citation2010).
22. MERCOSUR (Common Market of the South) is a customs union composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Venezuela joined the bloc in 2012.
23. UNASUR is an international organization created in 2008 with the goal to promote regional integration in South America in the areas of energy, education, health, the environment, infrastructure, security and democracy.
24. CELAC is an organization that promotes South to South cooperation and sustainable development in the Latin American and the Caribbean. It was created in 2010.
25. CIN is an organization that groups together rectors and high-level authorities of all public universities. CIN mediates the demands to the government from public universities.
26. The Higher Education Sector of the MERCOSUR also includes associate members of MERCOSUR such as Chile and Bolivia.
27. For the degrees of Medicine, Engineering, Agronomy, Architecture, Veterinary, Dentistry and Nursing.
28. It is important to highlight that the development of regional accreditation started around the time of the Bologna Declaration.
29. MERCOSUR as a customs union also has had its ups and downs due to different types of asymmetries and differences between the member countries related to their respective strategic goals (Russell and Tokatlian Citation2004).