World Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America

12 The Challenge of Building Research Universities in Middle-Income Countries: The Case of the University of Buenos Aires

12 The Challenge of Building Research Universities in Middle-Income Countries The Case of the University of Buenos Aires Ana M. García de Fanelli In Argentina, a differentiated higher education system serves as a way to meet the complex, and sometimes conflicting, demands for universal access to education and top-quality research and elite-training opportunities. Argentina now has almost 2 million students studying at 100 public and private universities and at more than 1,700 other small postsecondary institutions. The higher education system is as yet undefined. Aside from the goal of providing greater access to higher education for the growing population of secondary school graduates, the higher education system expanded without any plan. Its parts are neither functionally differentiated nor suitably articulated. Moreover, the considerable increase in enrollments was not matched by a rise in the quality and the quantity of highly skilled scientists and technologists. This situation has restricted the country’s ability to reach the standards of the more technologically advanced ones, leaving Argentina distanced from the international knowledge frontier. An opportunity exists for at least one, or a few, top-quality, researchoriented universities among Argentina’s higher education institutions. Such a university is vital for producing high-level scientists, technologists, and professionals to enable the country to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based society in the 21st century. Moreover, the literature on national systems of innovation mentions the relevance of these institutions as an especially important node in a network of many interrelated actors involved in innovation and technology within each country. One of the universities with greater potential to play the role of leading academic institution in Argentina is the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Although it is not a research-oriented institution, UBA is highly segmented and some of its academic units more closely fit this definition. Moreover, it is a major player in elite and professional training. Other traditional public universities exist in the principal cities of the provinces. At the regional level, these institutions tend to play a similar role to UBA’s at the national level. That is, they enjoy high academic prestige but show functional weaknesses that are equivalent to those observed at UBA. Thus, many observations made about UBA could also apply to these universities. This chapter concentrates on the case of UBA, based on the hypothesis that it is a national “flagship” university albeit not a canonical “research university.” UBA plays the de facto flagship role in the Argentine university system because of its importance as a fully mature institution. Consequently , its institutional policy decisions and organizational functioning are permanently under the scrutiny of public opinion. UBA’s complexity, together with its key role in the Argentine university system, has historically been a daunting challenge to the governments that were determined to introduce changes into the system: while governments assumed that a successful reform of UBA was crucial in terms of the “demonstration” effect that could influence the rest of the public and private universities, they were powerless to introduce the required changes given the organizational complexity of the institution, its monumental size, and the political sensitivity surrounding this problem. INSTITUTIONAL MISSIONS AND SOCIETAL CONDITIONS Established in 1821, UBA is the largest higher education institution in Argentina, with an enrollment of about 300,000 undergraduate students . Located in the country’s capital and wealthiest city, it consists of 13 faculties (facultades), located throughout the city, and two top-quality secondary schools with about 5,000 students. The provincial government founded UBA just five years after Argentina had gained full independence from Spanish rule. At the time, it was created to satisfy the demands of wealthy merchants and public officials who sought the prestige of a university education for their sons that would award them degrees in medicine or law. From the beginning, UBA’s principal mission has been the education of professionals and political leaders. Under the influence of the Napoleonic university model, the undergradThe Case of the University of Buenos Aires 261 uate level at UBA includes both the licenciado degree (on average, five years) and professional degrees (generally with a longer duration—six to seven years) in fields such as medicine, engineering, public accountancy, architecture, psychology, and law. In many respects, these undergraduate degrees are equivalent to a professional Anglo-Saxon master’s degree. A university chair is the main teaching unit within each faculty, and the chair holder enjoys a...