International Higher Education, Spring 2000

Challenges for Public Higher Education in Uruguay

Uruguay is a small South American country with a population of 3.2 million. From the end of the 19th century it was transformed by a process of massive immigration, mainly from Europe. Since the early 20th century, education has been a tool for social progress, as reflected in the early extension of free public basic education. While much has changed, some things survive--the welfare state, for instance, which the people have not allowed to disappear completely. Uruguay is now the least unequal country in Latin America in terms of income distribution. Education continues to be a high priority for the Uruguayan people, and the country is second only to Argentina, in Latin America, in terms of the proportion of the age group entering university.

Until 1985, Uruguay had only one university--a public one: the Universidad de la República (UR). Nowadays there are a number of private universities, but the bulk of Uruguayan higher education continues to be represented by the UR. It is a big university in Latin American terms, with 60,000 students. The vast majority of them study in the capital, Montevideo, which has a high concentration of higher education institutions.

The distinctive characteristics of the UR are that it is totally free of charge and students may choose what to study, since there are no limitations on admissions or entrance examinations to any part of the university--including the medical school. UR is also the only institution of higher education that offers teaching in all the main professional fields, along with undergraduate courses in the arts, humanities, and basic sciences. The UR budget comes entirely from the state. Only recently have research and consulting contracts begun to have some significance in budgetary terms.

The UR belongs to the important historical tradition of the Latin American university reform movement. Thus the UR has full autonomy for choosing its senior administrators, and the governance of the university lies with its "citizenry"--the teachers, graduates, and students. The university's three missions are teaching, research, and "extension" (i.e., cultural diffusion and technical assistance to support the most deprived sectors of the population). The social engagement of the public university was greatly fostered by the student movement. Since 1950, this has led to close relationships with trade unions and other social movements and strong enmities with right-wing governments.

In the early 1970s, as part of a wave that affected not only Uruguay, democratic rule was overturned by a military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. This had major consequences for public higher education, for the military government expelled the senior administration of the UR, dismissed hundreds of teachers, banned open discussion and free association, and caused the massive migration of scientists and researchers. Many programs fell into academic decline, research activities ceased in several areas, and for over 10 years the research infrastructure was not updated. On the other hand, the people's fight for democracy found strong support among UR students and many of its faculty, which reinforced the view that the public university is the "university of the country."

The situation for the UR has greatly improved, but major difficulties, both old and new, affect its performance. The old problems are diverse. The bulk of the student population continues to come from the middle or upper classes, in spite of efforts to facilitate the entrance of working-class young people. The "massiveness" of the UR’s structure complicates and slows down the process of change; this is particularly the case with the professional schools, whose organization hampers interdisciplinary work. The budgetary constraints are severe. Public spending on higher education is only .59 percent of GDP. Salary levels are extremely low, and competition from the private sector and from abroad transform into a Sisyphean labor the effort to build up teaching and research infrastructures and staff.

The new difficulties relate mainly to the government’s claim that the UR must continue selling "knowledge services" to obtain revenues. This is easier said than done: the country spends only .25 percent of its GDP on research and development, and neither the state nor private enterprises have generated a strong demand for domestically created or applied knowledge. The UR is the only Uruguayan research university--in the Humboldtian sense--and produces 70 percent of all research done in Uruguay. The research function is especially important in a country like Uruguay, as it contributes to understanding the history and traditions of the nation, and of interpreting science and scholarship. The UR is basically the only research institution in the country and, as such, is of special importance.

A small nation like Uruguay cannot work its way out of underdevelopment without adding knowledge value to its production. That is why an "economicist" and short-term view of public higher education that strangles its research function is a real danger for the country's future. Thus, a key political issue is to preserve and increase that function, as well as to encourage the whole society to become an active partner in the harnessing of knowledge to human development goals.