Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

According to the Preamble of the Magna Charta of the European universities (Bologna, 18 September 1988) the fundamental principles of the university are: 1. The university is an autonomous institution at the heart of societies differently organized because of geography and historical heritage; it produces, examines, appraises and hands down culture by research and teaching. To meet the needs of the world around it, its research and teaching must be morally and intellectually independent of all political authority and economic power. 2. Teaching and research in universities must be inseparable if their tuition is not to lag behind changing needs, the demands of society, and advances in scientific knowledge. 3. Freedom in research and training is the fundamental principle of university life, and governments and universities, as far as possible, must ensure respect for this fundamental requirement. Rejecting intolerance and always open to dialogue, a university is an ideal meeting-ground for teachers capable of imparting their knowledge and developing it by research and innovation, and students entitled, able and willing to enrich their minds with that knowledge. 4. A university is the trustee of the European humanist tradition; its constant care is to attain universal knowledge; to fulfil its vocation it transcends geographical and political frontiers, and affirms the vital needs for different cultures to know and influence each other. Unquestionably, rectors of universities in the Third World would also sign the Charta without any hesitation. However, few universities in these vast areas of the world — Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean — would fulfil the requirements set down by the rectors that gathered in Bologna to celebrate the ninth century of its university, the most ancient in Europe and, arguably, the institution which gave birth to the very idea of the university.KeywordsHigh EducationFaculty MemberEducational SystemPrivate InterestCognitive ComplexThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.