ABSTRACT
Latin American higher education developed since the nineteenth century from the tensions between the Catholic tradition of Iberian colonization and the enlightenment, rationalistic and predominantly French views present in the independence movements, and embodied in the “Napoleonic” institutions established throughout the region. This article discusses how this system evolved, facing the problems of enlarged enrolment, diversification, and the current problems of reform, as alternatives among the poles of bureaucratic, oligarchic and market mechanisms of coordination.
