LATIN AMERICAN CENTER OF
RESEARCH IN HIGHER EDUCATION
The objective of this report is to show the advances we have made in our research to create a typology of higher education institutions (HEIs) based on how they operate in practice. With this perspective (how HEIs work) we were able to analyze the type of classification of institutions and group them based on operating characteristics.
Initial Survey Results and Various Questions
What did we find?
Preliminary results confirm our hypothesis: formal classification tells only part of the story of the functioning of institutions. This means that we have taken a correct step in the construction of instruments for analyzing higher education. Our typology manages to show more important elements that were missing in the initial vision.
In addition to the opposition between public and private HEIs, the size of the institution played a role in defining the dynamics of expansion. The Brazilian higher education system expanded, reducing institutional diversity and concentrating enrollments.
The concentration of enrollments (88 private institutions receive 2,730,061 students) and high virtualization define the first group of HEIs.
The significant expansion of enrollment in the first group was offset by an equally significant reduction in enrollment in traditional and elite institutions.
In general, our results indicate the constitution of institutional types in the other Latin American countries analyzed that reproduce some patterns found in the Brazilian case. We therefore indicate that:
The segmentation of the system between a group of institutions, mainly universities, which are more selective in socioeconomic and academic terms, and other institutions focused on low-prestige or short-term careers of a non-university nature.
The institutional models chosen for teacher training have proven to be a key point of difference between countries.
Universities play an organizing role in higher education and always have a high degree of legally established autonomy.
The role played by the private sector distinguishes Brazil, Chile and Peru from Argentina and Uruguay. This distinction is not absolute, and differences between the most privatized countries may be linked to the impact of stronger or weaker regulatory institutions.
The institutional space and role attributed to distance education differ greatly between the countries analyzed. The Brazilian system, characterized by the concentration and oligopolization of the higher education market, mainly private and offered through distance learning courses, presents challenges for research on institutional diversification.
Indications of themes and questions for research
Higher Education System?
One of the best results of comparative research is to help DENATURALIZE our worldview. Even experienced social scientists have those moments when they leave aside permanent doubt, a fundamental duty of every researcher, and end up taking as “reality”, as the “natural order of things”, what is a social fact. In other words: we forget that what seems normal, natural to us – such as the idea of attending university at the end of high school – can be a specific arrangement of social relations and forces in a certain space, at a certain time. Or even for a specific social group.
In this process of denaturalization, it was necessary to return to questions that seemed resolved: what is Higher Education? What is University? What is a Higher Education System? How do different Higher Education Institutions work together in these systems? Which courses are superior? What certificates and/or diplomas are offered?
The answers may differ depending on the countries. Reading this report provides some initial approximations of institutional models in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay .
2. Does a Humboldtian ideal enhance and improve research?
In the five countries surveyed, we found an ideal university model, with strong characteristics of the so-called Humboldtian model, which has academic training and research as its main pillars. They are elite and very traditional institutions. Although, in the Brazilian case, they are losing students, these institutions maintain their prominent position in the landscape of higher education in our countries. This is due to the fact that they combine training with the highest level of excellence as well as some of the most respected research centers.
The emphasis on the model of excellent research and training universities is associated with significant investments by the public sector in postgraduate studies. The institutions that follow this model are those that stand out in international rankings and can be considered 'world class universities'. The emulation of this successful model, in a process known as isomorphism, can have perverse effects, ending up generating an academic bias.
But the research function in higher education has important impacts on the very design of university organizations. Researchers and scientists reinforce modern institutional functioning, supported by the rigor of the scientific method, seeking to avoid more traditionalist perspectives and conservative values. This function justifies to the lay public the value of the existence of higher education. It shows the common citizen that it is worth investing their money (or their taxes) in this somewhat expensive and esoteric activity.
On the other hand, there are returns, measurable even economically, from this function. Patents and vaccines are quite visible. The Covid 19 pandemic has made clear our dependence on scientific knowledge. At the same time, the quantity and quality of these returns still need to be better understood and measured in our countries. There are different levels and forms of investment in research and different understandings of how research work and university institutions should be associated .
3. Should teachers be trained at university level?
Teacher training for basic education is perhaps one of the most debated functions of higher education. Trying to denaturalize this issue a little, which can hurt sensibilities (the largest proportion of enrollments are in teacher training courses) one can ask, as is done, for example, with human resources management or nursing, why the courses basic education teacher training must be higher education courses.
Couldn't our teachers be trained in secondary courses? Or in specific institutes (as occurs in our neighbors) of higher education but not university?
The distinction between national responses to this question is repeated in debates over curricular content for teacher training. There is little social or political consensus about what teachers should study to learn to teach. Brazilian researchers have already raised the hypothesis that our teachers do not learn to teach.
If there is a lot of clarity about the need to make the teaching career more socially and economically attractive, perhaps the crucial role of these professionals in defining the future of a society makes it more difficult to find institutional forms and efficient pedagogical content.
Would the method found by Argentina and Peru, which propose that teachers be trained outside of universities, result in better and more competent professionals?
Would being trained at tertiary level but in an institution that is not a university design different from those seen in Brazil? It should be remembered that the majority of Brazilian undergraduate students are enrolled in private institutions that are not always universities. In this sense, would the institutional model make any difference? What kind of difference ?
4. Can Distance Education (EaD) be Superior?
This question echoes one of the items discussed above about what Higher Education would be. And it combines different elements of analysis: whether distance learning is “just” a different modality of offering training or would it be another type of education; whether there would be content that can be offered in a remote format and others that cannot; whether people in face-to-face courses learn more than those who study remotely.
These elements or dimensions are valid in all countries as research and information points for policies and legislation on the topic. But they are especially highlighted in Brazil, where in 2020 new entrants to distance learning courses surpassed those who enrolled in on-site courses. This explosive increase occurred mainly in education courses, that is, in teacher training.
If in a country of continental proportions such as Brazil it is easy to demonstrate the inclusive potential of this expansion of enrollments, the clumsy and poorly regulated way in which the process was conducted raises doubts about the quality and possible effects of this training on the job market. There are still few systematic studies. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that yes, city halls in the interior of the country hire professionals from different areas trained in distance learning courses. And there are studies at the MEC to understand how this type of educational provision works, which is almost entirely private and little known to researchers and administrative technicians, most of whom come from the public higher education sector.
In other countries, there is a very restricted experience with distance learning, which is practically non-existent for undergraduate courses.
Obviously we can find many other discussion points from this report. Some were listed that seemed most relevant based on the theoretical-conceptual and methodological matrix we used. From our perspective, the institutional models assumed by higher education would be the key to defining the contours and functioning of the system, to explaining the role of research and researchers in university models, to understanding the space dedicated to teacher training, to analyzing impacts of EaD. A key that opens a multidimensional space of questions and possible answers.