| Abstract: | Governments in Latin America appear to have reached the limits of public subsidy of higher education and they are searching for funding alternatives. Tuition is viewed as one of the means of diversifying support and thereby of reducing the financial pressures on the budgets of these countries. In addition to the economic rationale, advocates of tuition base their arguments on the inequities of public subsidy, on the concept of ‘the ability to pay’, and the need to redirect public subsidy to the elementary and secondary levels. Opposition to tuition is led by the students, with support from faculty and administration in higher education. Opposition is based on the ideology of ‘free’ education, which views higher education as a basic societal obligation and fears the ‘privatization’ of universities if governments do not fulfill their obligations. Tuition is much more than an economic issue and reflects a traditional distrust of government motives within higher education. Without additional sources of funds, however, it is likely that opportunity for higher education will be denied large numbers of students. It is ironic that expansion of opportunity may depend on the implementation of tuition as one method of raising financial support. |
