International Higher Education, Winter 2002

Argentine Higher Education in Transition

Marcela Mollis
Marcela Mollis is professor of the history of education and comparative education and director of the research program in comparative higher education at the Research Institute of Education, University of Buenos Aires. Address: Zapiola 3271, Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina. E-mail: <marcela@rcc.com.ar>.

A transition is now taking place within higher education in Argentina. As part of that process, the National Commission for the Improvement of Higher Education has been given the task of diagnosing the condition of the system and proposing reforms. The final report will be submitted to the Senate to assist it in the potential revisions of the 1995higher education law. From my point of view as a commission member, the present debate over higher education and its reform seems marked by a very shortsighted perspective and driven by an overwhelming notion of “financial and economic crisis.” When the commission’s work is concluded, Argentina’s historical tradition of public higher education is expected to undergo significant changes.

Social Institution or Industry?
Higher education in Argentina is moving away from the idea of the university as a social institution toward the idea of higher education as an “industry.” Those who support the idea of higher education as a social institution believe that public universities must preserve a broader range of social functions—among them, the cultivation of citizenship, the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage(s), and the formation of individual character and critical habits of mind. This perspective seems to have been inspired by the modernizing and democratic thinking of the leaders of Argentine public universities at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1916, one of the most influential rectors of the University of Buenos Aires, Eufemio Uballes, made a declaration in favor of state funding of the university while protecting the civil rights of poor Argentine citizens with respect to mandatory free public schooling. He proclaimed the need for state financial investment at the top of the system as much as at the bottom. Uballes considered that reading and writing were basic skills useful for the working class. However, he believed that the development of a national culture required a large group of citizens dedicated to the arts, science, and poetry. The defenders of the idea of public universities as social institutions are now debating the defenders of the idea of universities as an industry, dedicated to efficiency over the democratic principles that guided the public policy of free tuition at all public universities. In their recent article in this newsletter, Martin González Rozada and Alicia Menéndez argue that the equity and efficiency of the system can be improved by charging tuition fees. To complement this policy, selective scholarships and student loans should be made more widely available to attract the most talented students from poor families. This diagnosis is probably right, although the argument does not take into account the social realities behind the socioeconomic profile of beneficiaries of the university system.

Children from poor families tend to drop out of school before completing their mandatory basic education. In 1998, only 2 out of every 10 students completed the secondary level of education, and 64 percent of the Argentine population between 25 and 34 had not completed the secondary level. At the top of the educational pyramid, 31.5 percent of the 18-to-24 year-old age cohort was enrolled in higher education institutions, with a 15 percent completion rate. While the poorer classes drop out at the earliest stages of the education system, the middle classes (with a professional background) have a 60 percent likelihood of completing a university education, according to a recent study by Susana Torrado. However, research, has also shown that the economic recession is having a negative effect on the future expectations of the professional middle class with regard to university diplomas.

University for the Service Sector
In accordance with demands of the International Monetary Fund, the Argentine Parliament recently passed a law called Cero Public Deficit, which imposed a 30 percent cut in national public expenditures applied mainly to education, health, and social welfare sectors.

How is it possible for an undeveloped country, economically and politically dependent on international credit agencies, and culturally devastated by the policies of structural adjustment, to implement the model of higher education as an industry? What kind of industry embodies the particular nature of the Argentine economy, and therefore, what kind of higher education would be appropriate?

In the capitalism of the South, the idea of the university as an industry translates into the “university for the service sector.” The transition taking place within higher education in Argentina is economically driven not only by the global dominance of the market but also in response to the “third sector of the economy”—the service sector—which is the sole dynamic sector in a recessive labor market in an unindustrialized capitalist economy.

One indication of the connection between changes in higher education and the service sector of the economy, is the fact that in the last 10 years Argentina become the country with the lowest investment in higher education (0.95 percent of DGP), according to a survey of Western OEDC countries. Another indication is the rising university enrollments in fields such as administration and business management, social communications (mass media–oriented), economics, computer sciences, and so on.

The largest portion of university students (85 percent) still chooses to attend pubic universities, which continue to confer a level of prestige that employers still take into account and that influences parental decision and student choice. Between 1994 and 1999 most of the institutions that have absorbed the new enrollments have been the private tertiary institutions, which have proliferated at a rate of expansion far outstripping the development of the public university system. It is interesting to note that while the number of private institutions has increased 68 percent since 1994, private university enrollments have remained relatively stable. Under the guise of meeting local market needs, the expansion of the system through diversification is predominantly a process of privatization that consists of the setting up of the new colleges and vocational institutions by the private sector. These new private institutions at the (nonuniversity level) are made up of the increasing number of vocational institutes in such areas as hotel management, the culinary arts, tourist management, marketing, flight attendant training, and so on.

The “marketization” of Argentine higher education is reflected in the establishment of these new institutions. While this new type of institution is certainly having an impact on the system, the “market” in terms of student choice remains skewed toward the public universities.

Conclusion
The market-driven reform is based on the idea that the market will compensate for the withdrawal of public funds from the public education system. However, early results of these policies do not auger well for the institutional development of our universities. One of the most visible consequences of these market-driven policies is the proletarization of researchers and faculty members as a result of periodic salary cuts and the universities’ disinvestment in research programs. A related development is the fact that 60 percent of all university students are already employed (the majority with full-time jobs of 40 hours per week). This is evidence of a new type of middle-class student at the most advanced level of higher education.

The issues raised in this article are discussed more fully in the recent book by Marcela Mollis, La Universidad Argentina en Tránsito (2001).