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Expanding Access and Improving Equity in Higher Education: The National Systems Perspective

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Higher Education in Latin America and the Challenges of the 21st Century

Abstract

The shift from elite to mass higher education in Latin America has raised a shared concern over the desirable increase in equity brought about by expanded access to distinct types of post-secondary education. A reversal in the trends of economic and social inequality over some 10 to 15 years at the turn of the century lead most countries to support a number of equity policies vis-à-vis higher education. This chapter provides an overview of the conceptual and measurement problems involved in the design of such policies as well as in learning about their results over time. It also reviews different kinds of policies among selected countries in the region: policies promoting further institutional differentiation, those favoring the expansion of publicly supported institutions aiming to serve marginalized sectors, public assistance to students and families to cope with private costs, and affirmative action legislation supporting admission of racial, ethnic or social class groups to higher education institutions or programs. A concluding section briefly discusses the expected consequences of demographic and educational trends, such as a decline in cohort size and increased secondary graduation rates, over the changing higher education policy context.

Dr. Balán is currently retired. Originally prepared for publication in Spanish in 2015, this chapter reflects the research on access and equity policies at that time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York, USA

    Jorge Balán

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  1. Jorge Balán
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Correspondence to Jorge Balán .

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  1. Instituto de Estudos de Política Econômica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Simon Schwartzman

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Balán, J. (2020). Expanding Access and Improving Equity in Higher Education: The National Systems Perspective. In: Schwartzman, S. (eds) Higher Education in Latin America and the Challenges of the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44263-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44263-7_5

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