Private Developments

NUMBER 51, SPRING 2008

Demand-Absorbing Private Institutions in Mexico

Juan Carlos Silas
Juan Carlos Silas is a PROPHE Affiliate and professor in the Department of Education at the Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico. E-mail: jsilas@udem.edu.mx.

IHE devotes a column in each issue to a contribution from PROPHE, the Program for Research on Private Higher Education, headquartered at the University at Albany. See http://www.albany.edu/.

Mexican higher education is very dynamic and has reshaped itself due to demographic, social, and political changes. The expansion of the country's most rapid-growing subsector has included dramatic growth of enrollments and institutions and diversification of institutions.

The Demand-Absorbing Subsector
The term and basic characteristics of "demand-absorbing" were introduced in Daniel Levy's pioneering study two decades ago. He found demand-absorbers to be academically flimsy, narrow, usually small, and not seeking prominence in the academic disciplines—quite nonelite. Compared to other institutions they are tuition based (though they charge less than other privates do), seldom receive donations, survive largely by hiring professors from public institutions interested in additional income, and hold operational costs to a minimum.

Some common elements foster the start-up of demand-absorbing institutions in Mexico and many other countries: a large unsatisfied demand from secondary education diploma-holders trying to further their education, insufficient regulation for limiting the development of lower-quality institutions, and financial constraints preventing public institutions from enhancing their intake of qualified students. It follows that in a context of high demand, lax regulation, and financial constraints, both the educational providers and students seeking an available place are forced to look for different options. The result of this quest includes the establishment of institutions offering vocational-like and affordable education that provides students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds the opportunity to obtain a college degree.

The Growth of the Subsector
Empirical evidence links most demand-absorbing institutions to the diversification and growth of the private sector, which now contains about 16 percent of total Mexican enrollment. The diversification of institutions, models, and programs is related to the demographic pressure and a paradigm change about the functions of higher education that seems to give higher value to the development of professional and vocational skills linked to the job market. In the new programs and institutions, instruction does not measure up with the idea of university?like education and rather than professional educators requires practitioners knowledgeable about the practical profession and prepared to polish job-related skills. Demand-absorbing institutions appeal to students who select their institution and program of study according to their calculation of lesser perceived effort, opportunities for staying active in the labor market while studying, and expected return of time and money invested.

In the last 25 years, nonuniversity private higher education institutions have mushroomed, another trend found in other countries as well. One form occurs where organizations focus their programs on a specific area (communications sciences, psychology and psychotherapy, or gastronomy). A second form occurs where smaller institutions emerge, usually created by entrepreneurs and with a geographical coverage circumscribed to specific urban areas. These institutions offer traditional programs at a low cost and are usually directed to the service sector of the economy. In Mexico and beyond, this expansion seems to be known and tolerated by national governments and educational systems as a way to provide low-income students with access to higher education.

The Current Demand-Absorbing Subsector
Data from the 2005/06 school year shows 87 percent of the private higher education institutions in Mexico constitute demand-absorbing ones. With 328,803 undergraduates they enroll almost half (48.5%) the students registered in the private sector and 16 percent of the national enrollment. Most of these institutions are small; 40 percent of them enroll 100 students or fewer. However, one can find eight institutions enrolling more than 5,000 students—one of which reports having more than 16,000 students at 33 sites.

Mexico's contemporary demand-absorbing subsector relies on noncontract teaching personnel and a strong focus on licenciatura (four-year undergraduate degrees). Representing 65 percent of the 777 total demand-absorbing ones, 506 institutions report 100 percent "hourlies" (part-timers) as the composition of their teaching staff. Seventy-nine percent of the institutions offer only licenciatura, while the remaining 21 percent of institutions offer licenciatura plus some master's degrees. Few of these degrees require a costly infrastructure for laboratories or technology, and most of them are in the fields of administrative sciences, humanities, and education, or computer sciences, with aspirations of a fast immersion into the job market.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number51/p8_Silas.htm