Latin American universities and the Bologna Process: from commercialisation to the Tuning competencies project

Abstract

Through the Tuning–Latin America competencies project, Latin American universities have been incorporated into the Bologna Process. In 2003 the European Commission approved an initiative of this project for Latin America and began to promote it among ministries, university presidents’ organisations and other institutions in Latin America. This initiative, however, carries problematic implications. It is an initiative which: (1) simply copies a European model and applies it unchanged to Latin America; (2) opens the door to greater influence by large corporations in the universities; (3) maintains the idea of the pensamiento unico, or single way of thinking, seen now in a single group of competencies that are considered valid for Europe and Latin America, without considering the enormous cultural, social and political diversity of the countries of those regions; (4) offers an educational–pedagogical approach that fragments the professional education of students; and finally (5) has a negative impact on the work and identity of Latin American university professors and students as key players in university transformation.