Introduction

The expansion of higher education in Latin America before 1980 resulted from the growing demand of the urban middle classes. The state responded with a benevolent attitude, except when political circumstances led to police repression. The deep crisis and the emergence of new economic policies in the 1980s drastically changed this picture. Funds for further growth are not available and there is no longer a favorable political climate for the universities. The new ideological and political scene favors policies aimed at abandoning incremental formulae for state funding, increasing private funding, rationalizing spending, promoting institutional and program differentiation, introducing evaluation as a major policy instrument and checking enrolment growth. Negotiation over these issues in democratic regimes has become cumbersome and difficult. A set of policies for the private sector is also emerging though these are ineffectual if state funding is not forthcoming. Though flexibility over accreditation became common in the 1970s and 1980s there is now closer scrutiny of such matters. Legal frameworks have favored differentiation in the private sector also, including recognizing profit-oriented institutions which are capable of absorbing excess demand but which are less closely regulated than the older and more prestigious institutions.