Tendencias recientes en educación superior en América Latina. Argentina, Brasil y Perú en perspectiva comparada.

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to carry out a comparative study about access to higher education in different Latin American countries, taking the cases of Argentina, Brazil and Peru. After reviewing the main background and theoretical foundation, the expansion in the recent period in access and completion rates of this educational level is analyzed, paying particular attention to differences according to socioeconomic level. There is a trend toward greater access to higher education, in which Argentina stands out with a net higher schooling rate for the population aged 18 to 24 years of age greater than 40%. Likewise, an increase in graduation is observed, highlighting the performance of Brazil with an increase of more than 17% in the period 2015-2021. There are, however, notable differences regarding the analysis according to socioeconomic level and progress of the private sector in enrollment. This underlines the need to incorporate a global perspective into the public policy agenda that considers common problems in different countries and identifies the main challenges to advance genuine democratization of this educational level.