Higher education in Central America. Historical foundations for its future projection

Pergamon

Higher

Education

Copyright

Policy, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 55-66, 1996 f> 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0952-8733/96 $15.00+0.00

Higher education in Central America. Historical foundations for its future projection Ricardo Sol Arriaza General Secretary,

Consejo Superior Universitario Costa Rica

de Centro Amkrica,

San Jo&,

INTRODUCTION

The higher education institution structure in Central America, the coverage, the quality and the type of academic supply they offer, as well as their capability to respond to the demands of change, requires an analysis of its historical evolution, its relationship with the social and economic context as well as the internal and institutional variables which define them. Central American higher education, particularly in public universities-that is the angle from which this analysis is developed-faces wide and complex challenges: budgetary cuts, public sector (State) reform, internationalization, and an accelerated production of knowledge, diversity and complexity of the institutional scope for higher education, equity in regard to the educational demand of a large sector of the population with low levels of income, slow processes in the training of academic staff, administrative gigantism, a growing demand for infrastructure and resources reduction or funding sources for these items. These challenges revive, in a particular manner and with renewed strength, the need to reactivate the relationship between universities and the community, in particular, the unfinished and conflict-laden relationship with the private sector. This strategic challenge for Central American higher education, must be understood as the active intervention of the university in the conformation of an endogenous economic basis, including all sectors of society in Central American countries to a stable and sustainable economy, with the capability of generating and distributing wealth, in an internationalized, globalized context, in terms of the productive processes, in products distribution and in their consumption (markets), thus, the commercial and cultural opening of the borders and the emergence of regional and subregional economic blocks. It is the contribution of universities in this field, that allows them to consolidate themselves as legitimate entities, with a purpose and with a prospective capacity. In as much as they are able to respond to these demands, they will be able to contribute, substantially, to the consolidation of democratic processes and to the consolidation of a culture of peace, in the framework of the construction of a peaceful society based on solidarity, respecting human rights, with soundly established and participative institutions. The history of Central American countries has more than proven, that these economic, cultural and political advances and contributions, must be interactively and fully developed (Table 1). 55

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Table 1: General information

Country

Population

Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama Total

3,014,596 5,251.678 9,197.345 4,913.417 3.870.820 2.417.955 28.665,81 I

Source: Adapted

from DPU-UNAH

Area (km’) 51,100 2 1,040 108,889 112,088 I30.700 77,082 500,900

by country

Population/ km2 5899 24,960 8447 4384 2962 3137 5723

Population (20-24) 292,560 483.496 805,030 441,360 352,891 242.997 1,618,334

Scholarity rate 9.7 9.2 8.8 9.0 9.1 10.0 9.3

Higher education coverage 22.9 15.5 9.9 9.7 8.1 21.5 13.2

(1992)

THREE

TRENDS

Before these challenges, three trends that coexist and confront each other, take shape. They will bring about a heterogeneous and ambiguous response in every higher education institution at the level of the Central American Isthmus. The first trend is characterized by lack of mobility, by bureaucratism, by corporatism. The inertia of those components ousts public service universities and puts private interests in their place. The second trend chooses elitism as an alternative to budgetary restrictions. It seeks to develop universities as privileged institutions, serving an elite sector of the population of its country or of other nations; the University’s task is to link itself to international knowledge production centers and to facilitate technology transfer for the multi-nationalization of domestic economies. The third trend is trying to transform and fundamentally develop the universities, to turn them into entities able to satisfy and respond to the demand for information, human resources and technology, for the development of a nation’s economy, with quality, equity and which provides opportunities. Institutions are to be changed into institutions of excellence, and with a level of competition that will allow them to respond with seriousness and equity to the demands for participation in higher education. Close links will be established with knowledge generation processes and that with an independent and critical point of view. To transform themselves into institutions able to benefit from social and cultural diversity and, from the economic diversity of our societies whilst being part of the universal culture, without being overwhelmed by the logic of a totalitarian market globalization, is also part of this third trend. Those trends emerge in a social-political and economic context characterized by wide-ranging changes in the international division of labor, due in part to the radical alteration to the balance of international power, in part to the globalization of strategic productive processes, as well as of distribution and consumption processes. Locally, the context in which such pressures come together is one of weak, vulnerable, inequitable economies, that are just emerging from a political, social and economic trauma, itself a consequence of the still birth of development based on industrialization (import replacement). When, at the end of the sixties, the proposed development process failed, thus revealing the dependent nature of these societies, the external determining factors acquired more strength. The agricultural base of Central American economies had weakened, without consolidating their own industrial economic base, which might have allowed them to generate wealth and the capacity to redistribute that wealth. The external debt increased uncontrollably. Huge peasant masses

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education

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America

57

invaded the cities, especially the capital cities. Living conditions worsened and political disillusion became general. The Welfare State was no longer regarded as opening the way to a State of opportunity. In some cases, it became a State of national security, geared towards repression and later, to guaranteeing re-payment of the external debt (Hinkelammart, 1994) Having examined the trends that coexist in, and are confronted by, Central American universities, and the context in which they have to perform, we can ask ourselves how the institutional dimension has evolved, as well as the supply, the participation in, and quality of, higher education in Central America and what the strategies of change have been. Even though Central American universities did not plan for their insertion and their role in the productive process, they tried to take account of it in the development proposal for “import replacement”, by playing up the training of professionals, required by the State and the private sector. Ttinnermann commented on this relationship between universities and the pro-development model of the 60s in the following terms: “The unfolding of the Central American Common Market, which tries to promote industrialization by means of import replacement created, as an immediate social effect, among others, the increase in the demand for technically qualified personnel” (Ttinnermann, 1991). In fact, the Central American development effort, based on import replacement, brought about a fundamental change in Central American Higher Education. Such change might be seen in three very significant developments. 1. The execution of the First Regional Integration Plan for Central American Higher Education, PIRESC I, launched by the Central American University Council, CSUCA, from the Central American University Confederation, became a stimulus and a synthesis of university reform processes, created at public universities in the region. 2. The start to diversifying public universities and the creation of Higher Education Institutes for specialized professional training, together with other institutes dedicated to research, mainly for the Central American region, were founded by the governments separate from state universities. 3. The creation of the first private universities, initially denominational in nature, which proliferated later as foundations or as non-profit organizations. These three processes will each follow a particular track, whilst together making up the complex role of higher education in Central America. The social and economic context acting as external variables and the academic and guild developments serving as internal variables, will define new options for university level institutions as to the quality and the type of academic supply, the enrollment and the participation of the population of college or university age.

THE UNFINISHED UNIVERSITY REFORM AND THE REGIONAL INTEGRATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA The university reform is a permanent but always contemporary task. The continuous transformation of knowledge and its forms of generation and transmission make it unfinished. The basic principles maintain their validity; times change, as years go by. The

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implementation of measures to realize those values demands maturity, imagination and excellence to respond to them in detail. The plan for university reform in Central America was elaborated at the end of the 40s when the old military dictatorships fell apart. Principles and important guidelines were brought together by the First Central American Congress on Universities, which took place in San Salvador, in September 1948, and was enshrined in the Declaration of Principles for Central American Universities. Such principles-autonomy, humanism, research, and community servicedefended the unity of universities, in contrast to physical, administrative, and academic dispersion of schools of higher education, then prevalent. Autonomy became a central element against authoritarianism and tyranny as well as a counter weight to the strong oligarchic interests against which a wide sector of Central American civil society was fighting. Humanism stood as the expression of the right of the individual to realize his full potential. Research was regarded as an indispensable instrument to analyze the problems of Central American countries, to their solution and to raising of professional awareness. Community service stood as a basic requirement for “universities not to only be the crucible of culture and conveyance of knowledge, but a system of functions that will benefit the community that nourishes it”. Democracy, was a minimum condition of social interaction and the foundation of citizenship. Finally, there was the notion of Central American Unity, which should establish “the cultural, political and economic unity of the Isthmus. combine all spiritual resources with the objective of restructuring the large Central American family. .to create the necessary awareness for the great historical step of Central American unity. . To raise the moral, intellectual and economic level of our peoples to save them from mediocrity and ignorance and to obtain political freedom and social justice” (Permanent Secretariat of the CSUCA, 1959). Despite the broad range of this declaration of principles and its historical vision, it did not include a core aspect that is seen today as an issue of considerable importance, namely, the relationship of universities with the productive sector. Only late in the 80s was an initiative launched to strengthen links between universities and the private sector, which went beyond the simple supply of professionals for the state and private sector labor market. Principles governing higher education reform will mature and extend to all the universities of the Isthmus. Within this general setting, the Regional Integration Plan for Central American Higher Education, developed by the CSUCA, the highest body of the Central American University Confederation, the task of the Permanent General Secretariat is to coordinate its execution. Practically speaking, such a plan was both an effort to consolidate the reforms in Central American universities and a proposal for the integration and consolidation of the Central American Common Market, within the import replacements development model, then current. The plan’s introduction (PIRESC) stated: “the CSUCA has declared that its plan for the integration of education is the best way to achieve the establishment of centers for industrial professional training, included in the economic integration program of the Isthmus. CSUCA believes that economic and social development cannot be conceived separately from educational development. A parallel development of human resources is urgent. Therefore Universities are willing to contribute and ready to fulfill the task of preparing the human capital that should promote Central American progress” (Permanent Secretariat of the CSUCA, 1963). It was evident, nevertheless that neither the ideology of the university, nor the time-honoured tension between University and

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59

State had matured enough to support a proposal that would allow a qualitative jump still less a quantitative one in the relationship between academia and the productive sector. Priorities in the PIRESC were clearly defined and they showed where university students wanted reform to take place. Amongst them the strengthening of general studies and the schools of sciences and humanities, to be split into departments, the fostering of academic exchange in the Isthmus at all levels, the establishment of minimum curricula for the different areas in Bachelor’s Degree studies; partly to facilitate the recognition of degrees and diplomas and the free professional practice in the subregion; partly to promote the regionalization of certain professional studies, and to boost postgraduate studies and research. Objectives were clearly established: to consolidate the basis of university reform and thus, to contribute to the integration and modernization of the educational system, as well as the economy. Nevertheless, the strategy of PIRESC was not well grounded in its areas nor its objectives. Not all the pieces fitted together in the puzzle of development. Universities expected a cultural and humanitarian integration, based on important economic reform. But the political dimension was mainly conducted by authoritarian governments, even though some were forced to implement reform under social pressure. The pro-development model very quickly revealed the political and economic dependency of Central American society. Industrialization, regionally planned and developed with local capital, and oriented towards job creation, did not hold out long before multinational industry, based on high productivity, with a technology generated in developed countries and willing to admit capital from national sources. This caused a quick migration of considerable amounts of agricultural capital to industrial investment, and the flight of agricultural labor or peasants to the cities. The import replacement model was turned aside. The Central American Common Market, even if productivity grew, did not do so on the basis of installed capacity, of labor hiring, and still less did it act as a resource for the distribution of wealth. The model collapsed. Under such conditions, in public universities, the model of professionalization that promoted pro-development, could not be radically changed, but took a different direction and fed the liberal professions. This went against the trend that prevailed in university discourse since the end of the 40s and in particular, at the end of the 60s which anticipated a critical, humanist, and comprehensive university that would take care of the main components of academia: teaching, research and social outreach work. This ideal of a comprehensive, humanist and critical university, was not consolidated. On the contrary, in those countries where the social-political crisis brought about civil war, the university embarked on the path of criticism, solidarity and political commitment to the exploited. And whilst it emancipated itself it was not capable of thinking in terms of research and development. This trend has also been observed in countries where, even if they avoid civil war, the import replacement model remains truncated and the welfare state model breaks down, with the consequences just described.

RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT:

PROGRESS

AND LIMITATIONS

Even when public universities established some centers or areas of excellence in the field of research, in some countries, these have not represented more than 2% of the academic time budget and only in the best scenario did they reach 8% (Jensen, 1992). Nevertheless, some progress was achieved in the reforms of the 60s and 70s in Central

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America’s public universities. At the beginning of the 60s research was practically nonexistent and there were no postgraduate studies. By 1990, the General Catalogue of Research and Postgraduate Studies of the CSUCA, reported the existence of “ 123 research units, 675 research projects, 666 researchers, 45 postgraduate professional studies . ” (CSUCA, 1991). Recently, the Executive Committee for Regional Professional Studies of the CSUCA, made an initial data collection prior to the Central American university census that will be taken in 1995 and 1996. It reported the existence of five Ph.D. programs, 102 Masters’ Degrees and 109 specialities, of which, 17 Masters’ Degrees are credited to work as regional studies and another eight are currently being validated. ACADEMIA-SUPPLY

AND ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

UNIVERSITIES:

Absence of fees or differentiated enrollment at low cost, current in public universities in the area, together with the diversity of professional studies taught, make universities the most attractive option for Central American youth of a college and university age from all social classes and origins (Table 2). The provision of public universities, particularly in teaching, has proven deficient especially in terms of social development, the quality of life of the population and the demands of international academic development. This is especially visible in areas such as health, social sciences, humanities and engineering. (See academic supply (professional studies) in Central American universities Table 3.) For instance, the (public) University of El Salvador, in 1990, covered 15 areas of biological and health sciences, the 50 private universities in that country, concentrated only in two, Medicine and Dentistry. Something similar occurs in the area of Physics and Mathematics. For example, Costa Rica’s public universities teach 18 professional studies or specialities, while the

Table 2: Enrollment

Country CostaRica

Public Private El Salvador Public Private Guatemala

Public Private Honduras

Public Private Nicaragua

Public Private Panama

Public Private

of higher education

%

1981 53,915 49.856 4059 32,312 * 32.312 38.001 35,898 2103 27.705 26.889 816 16,894 11,376 5518 49,208 38,666 10.542

*University comptrolled. Source: Adapted from DPU-UNAH

(1992)

92.5 7.5

100 94.5 5.5 97.2 2.8 67.3 32.7 78.5 21.5

by country 1985 58.393 50.033 8360 60.994 28.733

32.261 57.980 48,283 9697 30.623 29,477 1146 26.749 21,405 5344 54,827 40,640 14,187

(I 98 I, lYS5. 1990) %

% 85.6 14.4 48 52 83.3 16.7 96.3 3.7 80 20 74.1 25.9

67,132 54,999 12,133 No data No data No data 79.329 64.435 14,894 42,881 40,639 2242 28.591 22,303 6288 52.275 38,306 13.969

81.9 18.1

81.2 18.8 94.8 5.2 78 22 73.3 26.7

Source: Adapted

from DPU-UNAH

~___ Biology and health Physics and mathematics Economy and management Social sciences Agriculture, cattle, forest Total

Areas of knowledge

(1992).

21 24 I9 28 9 101

No. of Careers

Costa Rica El Salvador Public Private Private Public _______ 8 1 I6 2 18 4 13 4 8 5 5 9 21 9 10 7 4 0 5 0 59 19 49 22

Table 3: Supply of higher education

America

7 14 3 17 5 46

3 6 5 I2 I 27

Guatemala Public Private

in Central

8 9 7 16 4 44 0 10 6 3 2 21

Honduras Public Private

by country

13 6 7 9 1 36

0 2 3 I 1 I9

Nicaragua Public Private 6 8 4 I7 I 36

0 9 5 I 0 21

Panama Public Private

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20 private

universities focus on 4 options: design and computer science.

BUDGET

AND

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Sol Arriaza

civil engineering,

PRESSURE

architecture,

industrial

MECHANISMS

Yet, it is precisely in the challenge to retain this provision plus the ability and readiness to adapt it to the demands Central American society will face at the end of the century, that the greatest weakness of public universities lies. The old channels of influence that used to uphold the legitimacy of public universities seem blocked. Universities in the region, in a sustained effort to draw on the strengths of existing governments, demanded the budget their financial and planning departments considered necessary, for the development of higher education in their country. But university reform like the one just analyzed, and the setting of institutional development goals both need a growing economy. Higher education feeds the development process; if the economy stagnates, higher education cannot keep up with the pace of change. Yet, the modernization of Central American development through the import replacement model, the unopposed goal of the Welfare State, in some countries, and in others, fiscal bankruptcy, allied with foreign and domestic debt, etc., created uncertainty in traditional planning, particularly when budgets get cut, in real terms, year after year, or in the best case scenario, they tend to remain level. Faced with their own internal growth, the diversity of their staff and student inflows, with budgetary constraints, public universities moved towards academic evaluation processes to allow them to operationalize quality and by so doing, to address the management of change, through university reform. General scientific and humanistic teaching, enshrined in so called general studies, as well as professional schools of sciences and literature were widely developed in Central American universities. General studies, even when at their most popular, have been subject to attack and criticism. Recently, they have come under further assault, through the call to reduce study duration under budgetary duress and also from the drive to professionalization which is often compounded by a sustained growth of enrollment, and amplified by an open-door policy that, as in El Salvador, ended with this type of study. The tension between general vs professional studies is a great challenge to public universities at the beginning of a global scientific and human sciences education. The issue is joined in Central America.

DIVERSIFICATION

OF PUBLIC

UNIVERSITIES

In 1676, the University of San Carlos de Guatemala was founded. From that time, until 1950,6 universities in 7 countries of the region were created, one university every 45 years. Between 1950 and 1995, another 11 public universities were established, totalling 16 (see Table 4). In the process of economic integration in Central America, governments saw the development of higher education institutes for teaching as well as for research purposes as indispensable as a support to the development process they wished to assume. Hence, the Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP), The Central American University of Public Administration (ESCAP), later changed to Central American Institute of Public Administration (ICAP) were founded. To these, should be added programs sponsored by Interamerican government organizations, such as

Higher Table 4: Universities

Country

established

Public universities

Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama Total Source: CSUCA

education

in Central

America

in Central

America

Private universities

4

I 1 3 4 3 16

21 50 4 5 10 14 104

63 by country

Total 25 51 5 8 14 17 120

(1991).

the Interamerican Cooperation Institute for Agriculture (IICA), the Latin American Social Sciences School and the National Schools of Agriculture and Cattle Raising, Nursing, Pedagogic Studies, etc. The factors that have shaped the diversification of higher education are many. They range from group interests through to the mistrust of governments, towards long established state universities. The thrust of discourse focused on the need to satisfy very specific needs, rapidly and according to development plans worked out by governments, despite the size of the oldest public universities and the bureaucratic slowness of their decision making. Furthermore, mistrust of certain university authorities has had some influence upon the decisions of governments and their plans for development. From the point of view of state budgeting, it is clear that, as public education has become more diverse, opening the way to more public universities, higher education or research centers and, as private universities increase in number, the traditional channels of negotiation used in the budgetary round are less and less effective. In the case of Costa Rica, where diversity is greater, this has given rise to a number of complex bodies such as the so-called Liaison Commission, where deans of public universities negotiate with the Ministers of Education, of the Treasury and, with political representatives, the way the budget for higher education is to be distributed among universities (see Table 5). Such diversification of higher education has had three further consequences: (a) the creation of inter-university bodies for planning and coordination; (b) the promulgation and updating of laws and regulations relating to higher education; and (c) Table 5: National

organisms

for coordination

of higher education

by country

Country

Organisms

Date of foundation

Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama

CONARE, CONESUP CONESUPES COES CES, DES, CTC CNU UP

1978,1981 1980 1978 1989, 1988. 1989 1990 1981

CONARE, National Counsel of Presidents; CONESUP, National Counsel of Private University Higher Education; COSUPES, Counsel for Higher Education; COES, Counsel of Higher Education; CES, Counsel of Higher Education; CTC, Consultative Technical Counsel; DES, Direction of Higher Education; CNU, National Counsel of Universities; UP, University of Panama. Source: CSUCA (1991). Adapted from DPU-UNAH (1992).

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the drive to establish evaluation and accreditation processes. The laws regulating public higher education were created in the early 5Os, as a step in the university reform proposed in 1948 at the First Central American University Congress, processes in which CSUCA played a role of key importance. Under such laws, the state or national university is given the role of supervisor of the development of universities and of guarantor of its quality. Laws related to private universities are created from law number 224, of 1965, in El Salvador. During the 9Os, a review of legislation took place to draw up general laws on higher education with the view to establishing order and to guarantee the quality of university level teaching.

PROLIFERATION

OF

PRIVATE

UNIVERSITIES

In 1970 there were only three private universities, managed by Jesuit priests and of recent foundation. 25 years later, there were approximately IO private universities, whose foundation began as the so-called “development through import replacement” model, faltered, as the socio-economic and political crisis burgeoned and as the foreign debt reached towering proportions. The emergence of the private sector logically went hand in glove with structural adjustment, privatization and the transnationalization of the Central American economy. In a pilot mission, the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) distinguished between two types of universities according to their responses to the labor market. The first adapted itself to the demands of the market, It (the university) provides what the market needs and does not question which might be the training needs for the country’s development; in this case the university has not as a function to think about development but to provide the human resources based on the occupational structure coming from the past (IDB, 1994). The second model responds

to the logic of supply,

a university

assumes that it creates an innovative strategy for the human resources that are going to be necessary in a certain term This perspective claims a research capacity on the economic and social development of the country, as well as an internal planning for the training of the human resources that are going to teach. anticipating the attention to the students. that is only achieved when the university has an important basis for scientific research (IDB, 1994).

According

to the IDB study,

private universities gather 2/3 of their enrollment in the area of social or human sciences and, within this area, in the different specialty courses of business administration. which shows how much they constitute a response to the private sector for the emerging needs of commerce and industry that requires new technical groups not provided by public universities, be it, hecausc~ thaw; con.si&rud fhrnt ~‘PVXmuch Stutcwricwted or wt wq wlicrhle. by creating professional studies curricula in tourism, advertising. etc. (emphasis added) (IDB. 1994) (see Table 3).

This situation is also related to socio-economic themselves give rise to private universities:

and political

developments

which

The desire of some sectors. mainly particular sectors of society, to complete then- educational plans. is very significant at the higher level: mainly for the upper classes of Central American society. The growing lack of trust of those same sectors towards national universities. is due to the slow politicization of their students and the increase of their critical sense, which leads them to question the status quo. The changes that were starting to emerge in Central American society, in which a dawning industrialization, accompanied by a relative expansion of the middle class. generated new educational needs (Ttinnermann. 199 1).

To resume, the supply of private universities is related private sector institutions, especially in the field of education.

to meeting the needs of Indeed. the development

Higher

education

in Central

America

65

of private grammar schools, schools and colleges flourished considerably in Central America. Yet the demand is for trained managerial staff in private companies, which need nationals to work in administration and management, rather than on technical staff to satisfy the demands of technological development of those companies. Administration, accounting, advertising, computer science and industrial engineering thus constitute the largest percentage of the supply of the private universities (Table 6). There are different types of private universities. We can differentiate between those that call themselves “public interest” and strive to maintain this principle, from those that use such descriptions for strictly commercial ends. It is also necessary to draw the line between private universities with academic quality-the actual majority-and those that are not at all concerned by it, as can be observed in public exchanges in the Central American press. In El Salvador, where approximately half of the existing private universities in the seven countries of the Isthmus are located, a newspaper report pointed out an alarming proliferation of such establishments and the way they operate. Such report, which classified private universities in El Salvador, according to their academic requirements, makes the following differentiation: (I) The most demanding. Very few form this group. (2) The moderate. Most Salvadoran universities are in this range; the academic curriculum has been approved by the Ministry of Education, nevertheless, there is no supervision and the follow-up for every subjectmatter is up to the professor. (3) The minimum of the minimum. There is a group of universities within this classification called ‘garage universities’, inadequately housed, where students are packed in small classrooms (places that used to be rooms in a house) (Ttinnermann. 1995a).

The editorial of the same conservative Salvador concluded: such proliferation (of private universities) the minimum quality levels.

newspaper

is a serious problem,

with the largest circulation because it has occurred

in El

only by sacrificing

In Costa Rica, another country where the proliferation of private universities has been substantial, totalling about 25, one-quarter of all private universities in the seven countries of the Central American Isthmus, the press published alarming articles on that issue. La Nucidn, a conservative newspaper with a wide circulation, pointed out that the lack of control on quality and the proliferation of private universities “is generating conflict and protests by the students, the professors and education authorities” (Ttinnermann, 1995b). Private universities that abide by the conditions required by their being in the public interest are generously subsidized by the State. Scholarship programs for students, and low interest loans help them develop their infrastructure; as well as receiving a part of the federal education budget, as is the case in Nicaragua.

Table 6: Indicators

Country Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama

Enrollment 54,999 24,389 64,435 40,639 22,303 38,306

Source: DPU-UNAH

(1992)

Graduates 5549 1042 1978 1419 1095 2475

of the public universities

(1992)

Faculty

Budget (in millions)

Graduates/ enrollment

5162 1810 3600 2878 1463 2104

88.8 15.5 20.8 22.9 26.7 56.7

10.1 4.3 3.1 3.5 4.9 6.5

Students/ faculties 10.7 13.5 17.9 14.1 15.2 18.2

Budget/ students 1614 635 322 563 1197 1480

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CONCLUSIONS (1) The redefinition of the relationship between universities and society cannot be delayed. The urgency of the task demands that the outputs and services of the university must be reviewed in the light of current social conditions and based on a development project. (2) Besides quality, the problem, both for private and for public universities, lies in defining the role and the level of competence of every university. The academic supply, the functions of each one of them and their historical development, in the framework of the context initially described, undoubtedly set the difference between the mission of the public university and that of the private one. (3) The need to set down the relationship with the political power (governments, parties, etc.), and to define new ways of operating and behaving with an equally modern criterion in terms of efficiency, quality, productivity and the demand for evaluating, derivated from those aspects. (4) Central American public universities are forced to reach their most costly achievement, autonomy, through a management model of a public good and a public service institution. The guarantee of its performance is not ensured by a group of government bureaucrats, but lies in the responsible participation of the sectors that constitute it and of the organized groups of civil society and other public interest institutions, which provide the public with the service of higher education, research, and information handling, or the management of knowledge. (5) The budgetary problem cannot be seen as a mere lack of resources, although it is a part of it. It is also a financial management problem and one of investment criteria. Today, investment in education is considered a component of the economy, as well as investment in health. Therefore, it is necessary to set investment parameters, criteria for quality assessment and the efficiency of the services rendered. (6) A new university culture must be formed. Academic traditions, intellectual behavior and, attitudes must basically change if they are to find new answers from the university to the current historical demands. REFERENCES Interamerican Development Bank (1994) A la busqueda del Siglo XXI, nuevos caminos de desarrollo en Costa Rica. Report ,from the Pilot Mission of the Social Rqforrn Program at the Interamerican DCLVIopmm t Bank. IDB. CSUCA (1991). Catdlogo General de Inwstigacidn, Costa Rica: University Publishing House. DPU-UNAH (1992) University Planning Bureau, at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. La Educcrcicin Superior de Honduras en el Contexro de 1~ Suhregi6n, University Campus, Tegucigalpa, Honduras: University Publishing House. Hinkelammart, F. J. (1994) Estado y poder politico: el desarrollo de America Latina y la cultura de la desesperanza. Paper presented at the Seminar “Unicersit~ and Derelopmen/ “, or,yauizrd IIF the School of Social Scietwes of the Unicersit) of Costa Rica and the World University Sewice. San Jose. Costa Rica. Jensen, H. (1992) Reflexiones inconclusas sobre la Universidad, Reffesions, 1, 3-14. Permanent Secretariat of the CSUCA (1959) Memoriu de la.7 reuniones de1 Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano, Leon, Nicaragua: Hospicio. Permanent Secretariat of the CSUCA (1963) Plan for the Regional Integration of Central American Higher Education, Costa Rica: Lyll. Ttinnermann, C. (1991) Historicr de la Unirersidud e/t AmPricu Latina: De la &pocu coloniul u 10 R@rma de C&do/x. San Jose, Costa Rica: Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana (Publishing House of the University of Central America), EDUCA. Ttinnermann, C. (1995a) Universidades privadas: i,Fraude, harafia o negocio‘? La Prensa Grdfica, 18 April, p. 6. Ttinnermann, C. (1995) Claman por control de calidad de oferta educativa: Discusion sobre Universidades Privadas, La Naci6n, 14 May. p. 8A.