The Impact of Government Policies on the Profiles and Attitudes of Academics in Two Emerging Economies: Brazil
and Mexico

Jorge Martínez Stack, Marion Lloyd, and Imanol Ordorika

texto disposable  en: http://ses.unam.mx/integrantes/uploadfile/iordorika/Ordorika_etal_TheImpactOfGovernmentPolicies.pdf

12.1 Introduction

12.1.1 The Objectives of the Analysis

As Latin America’s largest nations, Brazil and Mexico are home to many of the region’s dominant universities and its most extensive systems of higher education. Together, they account for nearly half the region’s tertiary enrollment and more than two-thirds of the scientific articles by Latin American scholars in international peer-reviewed journals (RICYT 2012). However, there are major differences between the two countries’ higher education policies as well as in their levels of support for science, technology and innovation. These, in turn, are the result of the divergent economic development strategies adopted by both countries, which took shape during their initial industrialization period in the 1930s and accelerated during the rapid economic growth of the 1950s and 1960s. In general, Brazilian governments have focused on developing an elite, public research sector as part of a broader goal of achieving technological self-sufficiency, while leaving most tertiary enrollment in the hands of private institutions of often dubious quality. Mexico, in contrast, has paid lip service to the importance of science and technology, while in practice prioritizing access to professional education at public institutions.