Research Universities in Latin America: The Challenges of Growth and Institutional Diversity

This essay examines the challenges of institutional diversity in the research mission within public university systems in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. The end of authoritarian regimes and economic growth have fostered university research and advanced training. The consolidation of a faculty body of full-time, research-trained and oriented scholars is taking a place in the few universities in each country ranking among the top in the region, although its relative weight varies considerably between institutions and countries. A more clearly differentiated research and advanced training mission within national systems would identify them as research universities. The essay briefly explores and compares how recent policies in higher education and science and technology may be having an impact upon institutional diversity.