Director: Daniel C. Levy

Uruguayan Private Universities Seek Parity in National Evaluation

(Entry by Pablo Landoni)

PROPHE Summary:
After months of delay, the new Government of Uruguay has installed its Private Higher Education Advisory Council. The Ministry of Education has designated a representative of the public university as president of the Council, generating concerns in private universities. Simultaneously, from different sides, claims for program quality evaluation have been raised.

All actors acknowledge a need to create a commission or an agency in charge of academic program evaluation at both public and private universities. Such quality assessment mechanisms, which function in other countries in the region, would not be responsibility of the Advisory Council, which advises the Minister on the licensing ("reconocimiento") of new private institutions and programs, many presently under review.

The new Government is planning to change the regulation of private universities. Private universities suggest that quality assessment mechanisms should include public and private univiersities. The reality, however, is that the national university has an autonomous status without State control, and also has a prominent role in private institutional regulation through the Advisory Council. Another requirement for private sector approval would be that evaluations might be performed by a peer review system and not under the inspectors system utilized by the National Education Agency in the primary and secondary level of education.

For the full story, see Digital Bulletin of the Observatory for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean #98, June 13, 2005, "Universidades privadas piden que se controle a la estatal," by Diario El País.
http://www.iesalc.unesco.org.ve/pruebaobservatorio/boletin98/boletinnro98eng.htm

PROPHE Observation:
Uruguay has been the last country in South America to allow private higher education. Regulation has permitted the creation of 4 private universities, 14 university level institutions and more than a 100 academic programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Until now, Uruguay has not had an Accreditation Agency like its neighbors. However, due to commitments in MERCOSUR (Common Market of the South, agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Bolivia and Chile as associated partners), some programs of Uruguayan universities have been evaluated by regional peers.

Policy discussions focus on "Who controls whom in higher education." The new leftish Government is planning to create an accreditation agency; however, it is not clear yet how the new policies will affect the autonomous status of the University of the Republic and the regulatory framework of private higher education.

The struggle for control over private higher education is a common one internationally and public universities often seek to wield ample power, sometimes through national agencies, realities that the private institutions tend to resist.