Director: Daniel C. Levy

Laureate International Makes Further Inroads in Central America

(Entry by Daniel C. Levy)

PROPHE Summary:

Laureate International, the large for-profit organization operating globally, is a new partner of the UNITEC (Central American Technological University). Laureate already had a Central American presence (Costa Rica) as well as a presence in nearby Panama. Its other Latin American campuses are in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. Internationally, Laureate has some 170 thousand students in 17 countries, on 45 campuses, with more than a hundred programs. Laureate and UNITEC pledge to expand and improve UNITEC.

For the full text, Laureate Internacional es Unevo Socio de Universidad Tecnologica Centroamericana (Unitec), El Heraldo, July 15, 2005.

PROPHE Observation:

Until recently, Latin America's large private sectors were non-profit, at least legally so and notwithstanding ample evidence that many operated as for-profits. Largely because of the de facto situation, countries such as Brazil and Peru came to allow legally identified for-profits. Elsewhere, as in Chile and Mexico, Laureate has been able to take over specific private universities, which remain non-profit. Honduras is now a further example of such penetration, with explicit emphasis on business efficiency but also commitments to a kind of academic growth and viability.