ABSTRACT

This chapter evaluates higher educational policy change in Mexico using the policy transfer framework. To venture into the study of policy transfer with education as a subject of analysis involves several intellectual challenges. Owing to its capacity to help knowledge dissemination, education can be used as a means of transferring particular ideas from one place to another, but it can also be the object of transfer through the introduction of new pedagogical practices or educational reforms. The case of the Technological Universities constitutes an interesting example of policy transfer in the education policy arena. During the administration of President Carlos Salinas, modernization was the main element of the national development strategy. The creation of the UTs can be defined as a case of negotiated transfer in response to economic interdependence, externalities, perceptions of the performance of other nations, and the impact of technological change. The policy transfer framework provides a useful approach in this regard.