ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION:
BETWEEN GLOBAL MARKET AND INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL
COOPERATION
Considerations from Latin America
UNESCO Forum “Knowledge, Access and Governance: Strategies for Change”
1-3 December 2004, Paris.
Carmen García Guadilla
Director Center for Development Studies
CENDES/Universidad Central de Venezuela
(November, 2004)
Access to Higher Education
It wasn’t just casual that 1963 had been the year when the first comparative study appeared with regard to higher education access. The research, carried out by Frank
Bowles and edited by UNESCO, reported a sustained increase as to the access to higher education in almost all regions of the world. This growth continued along the subsequent decades and thus the reason why the second half of the 20 th
century is considered as the most spectacular epoch of expansion of the higher education system, particularly in the most developed countries. From 1960 to 1995, the number of graduates in the whole world grew more than six times, passing from 13 million to 82 million (UNESCO, 1998). The expansion in the access to higher education in the sixties had a great relevance in the discussion agenda due to its social and political implications.
In all regions of the world, and as of the beginning of the sixties, enrollment rates boosted upwards, especially in the developed countries. Europe with a 2.2% of enrollment rates in the sixties, moved to almost 40% in the middle nineties; and, the
United States along with Canada, from a enrollment rate of 7.2% they reached almost an
80%. The non-advanced countries also showed an increase in their rates, from 1.3 to an approximate 7.8%, however there still exists a tremendous gap among the former and the latter ones. In Latin America the figures passed from 1.6% in the sixties to 18% in the nineties. (García Guadilla, 2000)

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The private educational sector played an important role in this expansion, at least in some regions. The levels reached by the national private sectors, worldwide, are shown in Table No.1.
Table 1: Scope of the private sector, worldwide.
Countries with large size private sectors
(more than 50% enrollments)
Countries with middle size private sectors
(between 25-50% enrollments)
Countries with small size private sectors
(less than 25% enrollments)
Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Bangladesh.
In Latin America: Colombia, Brazil, Chile,
Dominican Rep., El Salvador.
United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
India and some English speaking African countries.
In Latin America: Paraguay, Peru, Nicaragua,
Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico.
Most of West Europe.
In Latin America: Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Argentina, Honduras.
Countries with incipient or non-existent private sectors
(less than 10% to none)
China and almost all Eastern European countries.
In Latin America: Bolivia, Panama, Uruguay,
Cuba.
Source: Salmi & Alcalá, 1998: and García Guadilla, 2002
Another classical book that analyses the general access to higher education is written by
Martin Trow (1994). His contribution helped conceptualize the growth of enrollment demands for higher education, in accordance with the enrollment rates that different countries reach at a certain moment. He identified three models: -the elite access
model: when a country has less than 15% enrollment rates; massive access model: when enrollment percentage ranges between 15% and 35%; and universal access
model: when enrollment percentages are higher than 35%. According to these criteria, now-a-days, only the developed countries would have accessed the universal model.
However, considering the new knowledge society, with a high educational value, the figure seems to fall short in taking 35% as a starting point to access the universal model.
In fact, as it was outlined before, many advanced countries have duplicated this percentage in the last decades. On the other hand, the concept of “access to higher education” itself is being substituted by ‘access to knowledge’ and when it comes to less advanced countries it is referred to as “access to significant social knowledge”; that is, pertinent knowledge. The overall contexts of globalization and knowledge management, wherein new processes are moving all about, demand for higher educational levels in all the countries. So amplification in the access to knowledge is, in fact, a necessity that all countries are facing, especially those that have precarious enrollment rates in higher educational systems.
Now, the knowledge society unveils two dynamics; on one side, it demands for higher levels of education, and on the other hand, it seems to favour the possibility of it being possible by means of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Both dynamics are transforming the access to information per se and therefore also contribute enormously in the access to higher education.
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The ICT are being used to respond to the new demands for amplifying the access, both by the traditional providers
 the existent institutions are experimenting distance education forms, generally in combination with presence systems

and the new providers who, nonetheless they too use mixed systems of education, many of their offers are oriented by means of education at distance.
Among the new providers, in the latter days, it has been identify three modes:
Corporative Universities: as the name indicates, they belong to important enterprise conglomerates that require permanent and up-dated personnel.
1
Some authors estimate that by the end of the present decade, the corporative universities will surpass in number the traditional universities, since whereas the corporative ones are growing permanently, the traditional universities are decreasing.
2 On the other hand, the learning modes of the corporative universities are continuously incorporating the modality of distance teaching.
Enterprise or lucrative model: compared to the private traditional institutions, the owners of these ones have no problem in admitting that what moves them is the profit obtained, more than the prestige. The power of the lucrative models resides mostly in the managers and the users, and the knowledge application is more important than the production of it. The Phoenix University is a clear example of this.
Virtual Universities: in 2001, some 1180 institutions were identified which offered courses starting with post-graduate programs via Internet. It is also estimated that in less than two decades, the number of students assisting the virtual modalities will be larger than those of the traditional presence modalities. (Rodríguez, 2003)
In all regions of the world, one can observe new providers and new offers. The new providers in non-developed countries are emerging with different options: foreign conglomerates acquiring national private institutions; virtual universities; campuses, and foreign representative institution offices; franchises of foreign institutions in local areas.
Articulated programs have also proliferated amongst foreign institutions and the local ones, with mix modalities as far as the type of providers is concerned and as far as the public/private conditions.
1 Information taken from reports issued in 1999 state that corporative universities have grown from 400 that existed in 1980 to 1,000 in 1999. There is no doubt, therefore, that it had doubled this figure in the last 5 years.
2 Among the most known corporative universities it is worth mentioning: Motorola, Toyota, General
Electric, General Motors, Shell, Coca Cola, Marlboro, McDonalds’, American Express. These organizations are expanding their adult education spectrum by substituting their former capacity and training programs that existed in their departments, hence –aside providing their employees practical and comparative management knowledge-, they are envisioning the new policy –according to those that support it- as a search in amplifying the organization’s competition levels.
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Studies are also starting to appear which gives account of the scope and configuration of this new phenomenon. Recently, in Latin America, a Seminar had been organized by
UNESCO/IESALC where national studies had been presented providing information of a good number of regional countries.
3 What follows is an exposure of the comparative results of these works.
New Providers and New Forms of Supply for Latin America Higher Education
In Latin America, new providers and new offers are appearing, in some cases they are done in the virtual manner, but there are also some branch campuses and franchises.
However, there is also a larger number of articulated and agreement programs as can be seen in Table 2.
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Table 2
Foreign higher education institutions with presence in the Latin American countries according to the region of origin and the internationalization modality (*)
U.S.A. EUROPE
LATIN
AMERICA OTHERS TOTAL
Distance Education
Branch Campus,
Franchising
Cooperative Programs
28
28
55
54
9
59
19
13
11
1
-
-
102
50
125
Agreements 112 271 392 41 816
(*) Countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Dominican Republic,
Uruguay, Venezuela and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama).
5
Source: Personal research based upon country reports been done by: Marquis 2002, Peña Davidson et. al.
2004, Zarur Miranda 2002, Gonzalez 2004, Didou 2002, Bravo Villa 2004, Quintana 2004, Llaque Ramos
2004, Camarena 2004, Brezzo 2003, Jaramillo y De Lisio 2004, Estrada y Luna 2004.
The data in Table 2 shows an important number of foreign providers with different modalities and different forms of supply, which didn’t exist only a few years ago. As can bee seen in the following graphic, Europe has a higher level of presence in the modality of distance education
 as far as the number of institutions is concerned-
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, and the United States, in the modality of branch campus and franchising. Yet, inasmuch as the articulations and alliances, both Europe and the United States stand at a pretty much
3 Regional Seminary: transnational higher education: new challenges in a globalization world, which took place at IESALC/UNESCO in April 2004, in Caracas.
4 The information provided in the reports by the different countries resulted as being quite discrepant one from the other, whereas not all of them contained information on all the rubrics (headings). Therefore, what is presented herewith should be considered rather as tendencies, likely to be revised in time when more precise information is received.
5 Cuba and Brazil are not included. In the case of Cuba, there were no report; and Brazil, though it was a study, it resulted being very heterogeneous and thus making it difficult to include it with the rest.
6 This is not the case as far as enrollments are concerned.
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5 similar level. In turn, the Agreements modality is present in all countries, but specially inside Latin American countries.
Graphic 1: Foreign higher education institutions with presence in the Latin American countries according to the region of origin and the internationalization modality. Percentages.
56
53
44
47
48
33
27
19
18
26
14
9
5
1
Distance
Education
Branch campus,
Franchising
Cooperative
Programs
Agreements
USA Europe Latin América Others
Source: Table 1 .
Foreign Distance Education Institutions, including those with domestic support.
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In this case, Europe has a 53% presence, followed by the United States with a 27%, and next Latin America with 19%. With regard to the European presence, Spain is by far the most outstanding one, as from the 54 European institutions reported in Latin America, most of them are Spanish, except for the Open University of Great Britain. Amongst the
Spanish institutions the most frequently mentioned are: Universidad Nacional de
Educación a Distancia (UNED)
(National Distance Education University) , Universidad
Autónoma de Barcelona
(Autonomous University of Barcelona)
, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Polytechnic University of Madrid) , Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca
University) , Universidad Virtual de Barcelona (Barcelona Virtual University) , among others.
From the United States there are universities such as Phoenix University, Pacific
Western University, New York University, Harvard University, Athabasca University,
7 Considering that the student follows his/her learning process by enrolling personally -and in general through Internet- it is difficult to identify the activities carried out by those distance education institutions in the different countries.
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Bircham University, Atlantic International University, Oracle University. Some have representative offices in host countries.
The Atlantic International University functions in: Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and
Panama). It awards university degrees, bachelor’s degrees
(licenciatura)
, master’s degrees, and Ph.D. degrees. In turn, the Oracle University counts with local support in
Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, The Caribbean, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela. It offers working education programs and Masters.
It is important to outline the features of the Phoenix University since it pertains to the
Apollo group
 one of the major investors worldwide along with the Sylvan group, which will be analyzed further ahead. It offers information via Internet and has, recently, according to Rodriguez (2004), initiated a series of prospects to ally with countries like Brazil, accompanied by the Pitágoras Group and they are exploring options with Chile and Mexico.
8
In Mexico, offices have already been installed to acquire the Universidad Tecnológica de México
(Technological University of Mexico) which, according to its size, it is the third private one in the country, having 35.000 students. (The second largest is the Universidad del Valle de México (Del Valle
University of Mexico) acquired by the Sylvan group).
The Latin American distance education institutions do not appear to have explored seriously the regional area, with the exception, of course, the Instituto Tecnológico de
Monterrey (Technological Institute of Monterrey) (private) which had developed a virtual campus network in Bogotá, Guayaquil, Medellín, Panama, Lima, and Quito, as well as centres in Peru, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Venezuela; and outside Latin
America: in Barcelona, Spain. (Didou, 2002).
In Latin America, distance education is offered, in most cases, at the already existing higher education institutions. In this respect, important experiences can be observed as in the Universidad de Quilmes (UVQ) (Quilmes University) in Argentina. It is a public university that counts with technical support coming from the Universidad Oberta de
Catalunya (UOC) (Oberta University of Catalunya) which has developed, since 1999, a pioneer university educational experience in the virtual modalities, where the students can follow their university careers in full by means of a Virtual Campus. Another case is Brazil, which has developed a consortium of sixty nine (69) public higher universities also of the virtual type. This proposal includes postgraduate levels, extensions, and continuing education.
8 With regard to Brazil, the Pitágoras Faculty originated from the alliance. The project started off with an enrollment figure of approximately 1,000 students, yet they have taken provision in forecasting for the year 2010 to reach at least 100 thousand enrollments within the Brazilian territory.
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Branch Campus, Franchises, Twin Programs
In this category, the most frequent ones are the subsidiaries (branches), wherein the
United States holds a larger presence. Amongst the most renown institutes are: Endicott
College, Sylvan Learning Systems Inc., Nova Southeaster University, Columbus
University, Florida State University, Westbridge University, Westhill University, Pacific
Wester University, Jones University.
As far as the franchises, the Pacific Wester University, with campus in Honolulu,
Hawaii, hosts in the Instituto Mexicano de Educación a Distancia (IMED)
(Distance
Education Mexican Institute) in Mexico. It also has an office in Argentina. The studies held in Mexico are addressed to adult education, bachelor’s degrees (licenciaturas) , masters, and doctorates.
As it had been mentioned before, the

North American

Sylvan Learning Systems
Inc., is one of the major investors worldwide
 along with the Apollo group. The
Sylvan group has achieved a strong penetration in the Latin American market whereas they bought total or partially various establishments: Universidad de las Américas
(University of the Americas) in Chile
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and in Ecuador, Universidad del Valle de México
(Mexican del Valle University)
, Universidad Andrés Bello
(Andres Bello University) also in Chile, Foreign Language Academy and Professional Studies (Chile), Universidad
Iberoamericana (Ibero-American University) in Costa Rica and in Panama. (Rodríguez,
2004). According to the author, the total sum of the student’s registry in all the Sylvan institutes of Latin America adds up to more than 80.000 students.
10
It is important to mention here the experience of the Universidad de Boloña
(Bologna
University), in Argentina. This university begins their activities in October 1998. The program is divided in a first cycle developed in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the second cycle in Bologna, Italy.
The Master’s Degree in Foreign Affairs, European
Union-Latin America combines its curriculum with Argentinean, Spanish, and Italian professors. The Master includes four official languages: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English . The courses are organized in six two-semester terms, four of them are held
9 In the year 2000 Sylvan bought 60% of the “Campus Mater S.A.”, a Chilean group which are the original proprietors and founders of the University of the Americas. The academic conduction of the university remained in hands of the Chileans and they made no changes of the personnel. It has around 17.500 students. In 2003, the Sylvan broadened their presence in Chile by associating with the Universidad
Nacional Andrés Bello, private and autonomous, acquiring the influx of approximately 14.000 students for about 62 million dollars. (González, 2004).
10 Being an enterprise group, the Sylvan consortium is basically oriented to profit making, any other purpose (activity) is oriented towards the same objective. In the last years they had held a sustained sales gross income that ranges between 10 and 25% (…) Aside the fact that their plans on a medium-term basis
(before 2010) is to acquire new institutions foreseeing a total enrollment figure of 200 thousand students and an average income somewhere near one thousand millions dollars per year, which would place this consortium as the main transnational provider of higher education in the world” (Rodríguez, 2004b:33).
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8 in Buenos Aires and two in Bologna. Other two bimonthly terms are devoted to stages to be given at international companies and organizations (in Europe or Latin America) and to the preparation of the final thesis. Another important issue is that it counts with an important variety of students. The University of Bologna Campus in Buenos Aires has a Research Centre where a work-project focusing on the scientific-disciplinary areas is addressed towards the Master’s study Program. (Marquis, 2002).
In some countries, foreign academic institutions have offices to promote activities and agreements. In the case of Chile, we could outline: California University, Harvard
University, Heidelberg Universitat, University of Michigan, Stanford University, State
University of New York, Tufts University, and University of Wisconsin.
It is to be noted that Chile does not allow for opening campuses of foreign universities, therefore they constitute a juridical party of international propriety. Among these, the SEK University is an organization founded in Spain that provides a range of courses starting from kinder levels up to university levels. This university also develops activities in Guatemala,
Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic. Today, this organization has universities settled in Ecuador, Chile, and Spain. (González, 2004).
Alliances and Articulated Programs
In this case, more than being new providers, they are already existing providers, in many occasions with new supply modalities.
The largest percentages in alliances are with the Spanish ones and the North American as well. Amongst the Spanish most renown universities are: Universidad de Salamanca
(Salamanca University), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Polytechnic University of
Valencia), Universidad de Barcelona (Barcelona University), Universidad de Sevilla
(Sevilla University), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid Complutense
University), Instituto Empresa (Enterprise Institute) . Among the North-American institutions are: Columbia University, Florida University, Nova Southeaster University,
Berkeley, Pittsburgh, etc. In all these cases there is an important variety distributed among the countries; this means that the institutions do not necessarily repeat themselves.
With regard to Latin America, the Cuban institutions have a significant presence in other countries of the region; as the Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría
(Jose Antonio Echeverria Superior Polytechnic Institute) and the Centro Nacional de
Perfeccionamiento (National Perfection Centre).
In Chile the most outstanding are: the
Universidad de Chile (Chile University), Universidad de las Américas, Universidad
Técnica Federico Sta. María
(Federico Sta. María Technical University) , among others.
In Latin America there exist institutions with regional characters, such as: Universidad
Andina Simón Bolívar
(Simon Bolivar Andean University), FLACSO
11
, CLACSO
12
,
11 Latin America Faculty of Social Sciences.
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INCAE
13 , Escuela Agrícola Panamericana
(Pan-American Agricultural School),
Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Postgrado (Iberoamerican Postgraduate
University Association), Universidad Latinoamericana del Caribe (Caribbean Latin
American University).
These institutions are up-dating its communication and cooperation strategies with countries that integrate the affiliations.
The behavior of the articulations or alliances among the countries takes different forms.
In most cases, there are no new providers, rather new forms of offerings from the existent providers. For instance, in the case of Mexico, there are more articulation programs among the public institutions; while in Argentina, the articulations are more among the private institutions. Yet, both countries show combination between the public sectors and the private. (García Guadilla, Didou & Marquis, 2002).
Agreements
The agreement modality continues to be the most frequent mechanism used for international cooperation among the institutions. This mechanism, that represents the traditional mode for academic internationalization, continues being the most common practice in Latin America with regard to their relationships with the external academic world, with countries of the same region, but also with other countries out of the region, especially Spain, followed by the United States.
Costs of New Providers Programs
There is little information with regard to their costs. However, if we consider some of the updated scarce information, it is possible to point out some tendencies. From
Bolivia, the information gathered is as follows: in four cases it was found that enrollment costs were below US$ 1.000; other 4 cases the media was between US$
1.000 and 3.000; there were seven cases showing figures between US$ 5,000 and
10.000; and in one case it was over US$ 10.000. Nonetheless, the most frequent ones
(20 cases) seem to range between 3.000 and 5.000 dollars. These costs appear to be lower than some of the most important private universities, as the cost for a Master’s degree in the Universidad Católica Bolivariana
(Bolivarian Catholic University) amounts to US$ 9.000, “far beyond the offer of the Fundación Iberoamericana
(Ibero-
American Foundation) which costs US$ 5.000, being even lower when it is possible to have a scholarship. In that case, the cost is US$ 1.400 (Peña Davidson et. al., 2004:48)
In Central America, a region with a great number of new foreign providers, some of the costs gathered are: Atlantic International University: between US$ 4.200 and 5.200,
12 Latin America Council of Social Sciences.
13 INCAE was founded in 1964 by governments of the Central American nations with the supervision of
Harvard Business School. It is a private, non-profit, multinational, higher-education organization devoted to teaching and research endeavors in the fields of business and economics aimed at training and instructing, from a worldwide perspective, individuals capable of successfully holding top management positions in Latin America.
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10 depending on the option of the degree; UNED, Spain: the cost for the diplomatic bodies are between US$ 50 and 154; INTEC, Monterrey, between US$ 930 and 2,070, also depending on the degree; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: US$ 25.000 for
Master, which includes provision of books and airfares as well as expenses on a weekly basis with room allocations; Grupo Santillana, Spain, the enrollment costs is from US$
3.500 to 6.500 for Master; Columbus University costs are from US$ 1.512 to 2.616, also depending on the degree; Universidad de Texas A&M: US$ 5.775 for Master degrees.
(Estrada y Luna, 2004).
In Colombia, a large amount of propaganda is published regarding foreign programs for distance learning. During the year 2003, 121 programs were offered proceeding from: the United States 74 institutions, Spain 24 institutions; followed from the United
Kingdom, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Canada, Argentina, Ireland, Australia, and
Panama. Also there are other institutions whose campus sites have not been identified, nor the country of origin. The costs that have been registered were: Universidad de
Madison (Madison University) : between US$ 1.975 to 2.775 depending on the degree;
Tecnológico de Monterrey
(Monterrey Technological) : between US$ 943 to 3.100, also depending on the degree; Phoenix University: between US$ 440/credit-hour to US$
620/credit-hour, depending on the degree. (Zarur Miranda, 2004).
In Peru the following costs are reported: Instituto de la Empresa de Madrid (Enterprise
Institute of Madrid) : between 19.850 and 33.850 Euros, depending on the degree.
Universidad Adolfo Ibañez
(Adolfo Ibañez University) , in Chile: between US$ 19.000 and 22.000 which also depends on the degree; Duke University: US$ 29.600 for Master.
(Llaque Ramos, 2004).
Regulation Mechanisms, Quality Assurance, and Accreditation Systems
One of the main problems for non-advanced countries is its vulnerability vis a vis the institutions that grant diplomas that bear no guarantee of quality; institutions that have been called “fabric of diplomas”.
Most of the Latin American countries, with strong efforts and great tensions, have managed to develop national systems of evaluation and/or accreditation in the decade of the nineties. Even though they didn’t include mechanisms of regulation for the foreign providers, and when they were incorporated, it does not necessarily guarantee its application. For example, in the case of Argentina, since 1998, there exists a resolution that regulates the offer for distance education; yet it is not applicable when a foreign university doesn’t settle in the country, because the offer is done via Internet. (Marquis
(2002). In those cases, the law in Argentina cannot regulate it or set up conditions with regards to its performance.
As far as Brazil is concerned, there exists a Resolution since 1997 that affirm that grade diplomas and postgraduate degrees obtained in courses dictated in Brazil offered by foreign institutions in the modalities of partial presence or at distance, shall not be
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11 revalidated nor recognized, or by means of any form of association with Brazilian institutes without proper authorization of the respective Public Entity. Yet the American
World University did not consider this Resolution applicable to their case and the argument they offered was that they held no campus in Brazil but in the State of Iowa and in Hawaii (United States of America) and therefore the students are considered as matriculates at AWU (in the USA) whereas they do not have to follow the Brazilian
Institutions’ laws. (Marquis, 2002).
Brazil is one of the Latin America countries that has adopted a quite surveillance attitude, with the aim of preserving the quality of its postgraduate courses. In this sense, the Ministry of Education
 by means of their Internet page, provides information regarding authorized Institutes for pre-grades; and CAPES
14
does its own for postgraduate courses. Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Ministry of Education of
Brazil considers that some 4,000 students are nowadays enrolled in irregular courses.
On the other hand, the National Council for Education and the Higher Educations
Chamber demanded, in April 2001, that the postgraduate courses offered in the country by foreign institutions, directly or by means of an agreement with national institutions, should suspend the process of admission of new students.
15
Also, this country decided to suspend concessions for new study scholarships to certain foreign institutions.
(Marquis, 2002).
However the defensive measures may be effective in the short run, the protectionism is a very limited solution, mainly when it refers to processes that surpass national frontiers.
Hence, here is where the provisions of international frameworks on regulations hold a fundamental role in transnational education, due to the vulnerability of the countries as they are facing fraudulent institutions. There exists a research held by the proper North
American State questioning some 200 North American fraudulent institutions.
16
Market Tendencies in Higher Education
Parallel to the market orientation coming from the new providers, there exist -in the non central countries- traditional market dynamics, being the most important, “consumption abroad”. In this modality, the institutions in the developed countries have obtained large economical benefits. Higher education world market surpasses in over 3% of the totality of all the commercial services; and, in several countries, the educational services are situated within the first 5 rankings in the exportations sector. (OECD, 2002).
14 An organization in charge of coordinating post-graduates in Brazil.
15 Among these: 1 Cuban Institution, 10 Spanish ones, 2 French, and 2 Portuguese. This measure only applies to semi-attending not regular courses offered by institutions; it does not affect courses where the same mode is applied but which the rules set forth by the CAPES and are assessed by such institution.
16 The GAO, United Status General Accounting Office, Washington November 21 st , 2002 letter. Matter of reference: Purchase of Degrees from Diploma Mills.
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The most benefited country is the United States, receiving foreign students during the year 2000 rendering an income that amounts to 10.29 billion dollars, a largely superior amount budgeted for the totality of the public higher education in all of Latin America.
According to the OECD (2002), the market for higher education in countries that are members of this organism is approximately 30 billion dollars per year.
The non-advanced countries have had a consumer’s role in the world marketplace during the past decades with a great deal of asymmetries. For example, in the case of Latin
America, none of their countries figure today in the list of the 23 countries that attract a large number of foreign students. The countries placed in the first places are: the United
States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Australia.
17
The countries that have had a major growth in this concept, for specific internationalization policies, are Australia,
Great Britain, and New Zealand. (OECD-CERI, 2002).
Nonetheless, and independently from the internationalization processes that are being carried out through different formulas, negotiations are being held with regard to the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) within the World Trade Organization
(WTO) , the only worldwide international body that deals with the rules on commerce among nations.
18
This agreement, providing the conditions under subject, would favour the higher education market in the world.
In turn, Latin America -parallel to the GATS outlines- is framing up, since 1994, negotiations in reference to the Acuerdo de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA)
(America Free Trade Agreement) .
19 The agreements presented by the ALCA are related with the GATS, due to the fact that the negotiation with the ALCA follow the procedures convened at GATS. The trade form, that follow the lines both coming from
GATS or from ALCA, more commonly called in the agreement as “forms of supplies”
17 By order of importance, the countries that at present attract the greatest number of foreign students are:
U.S.A., United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Italy,
Turkey, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Finland, Czeck
Republic, Republic of Korea.
18 GATS contemplates 12 services, among these, the educational one. It establishes a series of commitments that apply to all members: a) Unconditional obligations: the obligation of the “Most
Favoured country” (MFC), implies equal treatment of all partners. b) Conditional obligations: the objective of this obligation is to protect the national objectives. They are only applicable to commitments that figure in the charter for every country, that is, the degree and magnitude of the obligation is determined by each country: -Market Access (MA): Each country will determine restrictions of access to the market corresponding to each sector committed; - National Treatment (NT). It implies the same treatment to national and foreign suppliers.
19 According to Rodríguez (2004), as both agreements are in full process, it is probable that there may be mutual influences; that the negotiations in the frame of the WTO would set up the outlines regarding the definitions derived from the ALCA, and that the letter would operate serving as a mechanism to support the different positions agreeable to the world. So, for example, whatever is actually signed it would surely pass to being a chapter for the ALCA, but whatever is convened with regard to service matters regarding hemisphere agreements will serve to redound (complement) the GATS’ general focus and contents.
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13 are the following : Cross-border supply, consumption abroad; commercial presence; presence of natural persons.
Up to the year 2002, 32 countries had subscribed compromises with the higher educational sector of GATS, among them, the majority of OCDE members (25 countries out of 30). In this membership, 12 are from the European Union. In Latin America, the only countries that have concentrated their compromises with higher education are:
Mexico and Panama. Each country can determine their rights for foreign providers to access the marketplace, For example, Mexico has determined for the Commercial
Presence that foreign investments only reach a 49% of the capital registered by the enterprises, aside the fact that they need previous authorization coming from the
Ministry of Education.
If the commercial tendencies prevail as well as the implacable market agenda, the scenario for the non-advanced countries would be one of great uncertainty due to the fact that all trade agreements treat the different countries as equals, not taking into account the vulnerability of many of them. It wouldn’t be difficult to presume that -in the case of most of the non-developed countries- the disadvantages would excessively surpass the advantages of these trade tendencies.
The Relevance of Internationalization
The general tendency is to believe that the university has always been international, which is not quite true. In its first stage, at the times of the creation of the university, in the Middle Age, there existed a period of fluid exchange of students and professors among the different universities settled in different geographical sites; nonetheless, they were not separated by border lines of the nations for, in those days, the figure of Statenation hadn’t emerged. Therefore, the mobilization of the students and professors, at the time, could rather be considered as “Inter-territorial” and not as “Inter-national”.
20
The territories occupied by the existing universities in those days were: Bologna, Paris,
Oxford, Salamanca, to mention some of them; and they were considered as a single body belonging to the same community linked by the religion, Christianity; aside the fact that the students of the different universities talked the same language, Latin. The academic programs and the examinations systems were pretty consistent and therefore there were no major problems with the recognition of their studies, allowing the itinerating students go from one university to the other, at will, and in accordance to their needs.
During the 15 th
century, the inter-territorial circulation of students was lowering, whereas the movements were limited to the elite society. On the other hand, the Reform and Counter Reform had its effect in the universities, for they were being used as instruments to ensure orthodoxy or to set up frontiers between opposing interpretations.
20 Scott, 1998; Neave, 2001; Knight & de Wit, 1995
13

14
One of the formal proofs of a recently proclaimed sovereignty was the rights that local governments had to establish (new) universities. (Neave, 2001).
As time flowed towards the 17 th
century, some European countries commenced to impose some requirements from the students applying to follow careers inherent to the public administration. The rights to hold offices related to public functions were reserved to those that had been educated within the country.
As of the creation of a Modern State, up to the 20 th
century, the inter-territorial dynamics were becoming more and more scarce as, in turn, the new universities already held the mandate to respond to the national problems. Furthermore, the international dynamics associated to those centuries had to do with the exporting of European universities to the rest of the world.
During the first half of the 20 th century, there had been mobilization of professors especially from Europe to the United States- due to the two world wars effects. It wasn’t until the second half of that century that internationalization started to vividly express itself within the context of the paradigm of Development, showing great cross-border movements of students coming from non-developed countries towards the more advanced ones (from south to north). In this same context, new institutional cooperation agreements emerge but in an inverted way.
The last decade of the 20 th
century is characterized by the flow of integrating dynamics with a regional and sub-regional character,
21
besides those agreements reached among the institutions. Parallel to these dynamics, globalization emerges with great impetus with regards to knowledge,
22
with a trend to turn towards internationalization, evidencing the lucrative aspect of such dynamics. In this sense, the crescent impact in globalization, during the last years, has a greater relevant incidence deriving from internationalization, as the latter happens to be a key element with which the academic institution must respond to the impact of globalization.
23
21 In the case of Latin America: MERCOSUR, TLCAN, UNAMAZ, CSUCA, among others.With regard to the academic cooperation programs between Europe and Latin America we could outline mainly the
ALFA and COLUMBUS.
22 Understanding the term globalization as a technology flux, knowledge, people, values and ideas that circulate across the frontiers and that it affects each country differently, according to its history, traditions, cultures, and priorities. (Knight, 2003).
23 As has been pointed out by several authors (among them, De Vit, 1995, Scott, 1998), it is necessary to recognize that, though there exists outstanding similarities between both, globalization and internationalization, they are actually two different concepts. Internationalization depends on the existing state-nation model and therefore it tends to reproduce hierarchy and hegemony of the countries; whereas globalization is not attached to the past. It is a force that could even be considered as subversive and therefore may present new agendas, if it is considered that there are different options of the market scenarios.
14

15
Therefore, internationalization is moving from the periphery to the center of attention in the academic institutes. And, as it gains importance, it turns more and more into being an enterprise, interwoven with market processes (Knight 2004). To oppose these
“lucrative” internationalization tendencies, it is essential to favour those options that lead to regional and international cooperation.
Regional Cooperation
One of the ways some countries are organizing themselves to face lucrative internationalization is by means of “regionalization”. Some authors consider this focus is actually a co-sharing of globalization, in the sense that regionalization is in fact transnationalization at a sub-global scale of the social arrangements within adjacent areas.
(Beerkens, 2004). The central issue of this debate would be to guarantee that regional integration be held upon the basis of plural articulations based on national interest, where the parts and institutions, even if they are operating under the national states’ mandates, they could acquire grade levels of autonomy and behave as independent actors. In this respect, in Europe, two simultaneous processes are taking place, on one side, the globalization of knowledge, including the signature of the GATS that had already been subscribed by 12 members of the European Union, and on the other hand, there is the regional cooperation process through the Convention of Lisbon and the
Bologna Agreement, addressed to create a European Area for Higher Education for the year 2010.
24
Regionalization could be a strategy
 among others

to legitimize instances that favour the development of articulations, alliances, and agreements, that would benefit internationalization with cooperation. Regional integration could be a way to gain power and count with more strength within the academic globalization processes. In
Latin America, the Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group
(Asociación de
Universidades del Grupo Montevideo) (AUGM) integrates the following countries:
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile. This sub-regional agreement covers the study of their common problems in priority areas regarding social development, health, environment, and production of culture.
The regional integration could also enhance inter-region agreements, as Common Space for the European Union in Higher Education - Latin American (UEALC); programs such as ALFA (European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin
America) .
25
24 “The wide and dense network of linkages that emerged through cooperation and exchange has provided
European universities with the need for coordination and communication and for external positioning”.
(Beerkens, 2004:37).
25 In: “Action Plan 2002-2004 for the construction of common spaces for higher education, European
Union-Latin America-The Caribbean”.
15

16
Cooperation and Internationalization
How is it possible to capture the positive aspect of globalization of knowledge so as it may benefit the interaction without jeopardizing any pertinent competition?
Internationalization cooperation may prevail over the lucrative internationalization; giving emphasis on sustainable and harmonious development, where “the regulations are not subdued to the marketplace, but to society.”
In order to overcome the strong market tendencies –with its strong competitive character- it will be necessary to stress international cooperation, and interactive globalization, with regulations oriented to educational agreements.
Academic cooperation has been the most antique and most important form of relation between the institutions as well as amongst the academics themselves as individuals. It is important this cooperation prevails, along with a healthy competition so that the institutions may enhance their efforts to elevate their quality, all in the benefit for the users and for the countries.
26
In this scenario of cooperation, the harmonization between public and private sectors are needed. It is necessary to take into account that many of the conceptualizations that had been useful in the former contexts are no longer nowadays. It should be understood that the dichotomies are not resulting beneficial to understand the complexity of the new unedited realities. To overcome rigid dichotomies such as “public-private”, “free of costwith cost”, “transnational-national”, it must be analyzed with new analytical concepts, since we face more complex realities. In this paper it has been observed that the articulations between national and foreign institutes are sometimes mixed ones. That is, the agreements can be cooperative or market oriented, independently that the profile of the providing institution be private or public, national or transnational. In fact, an example is the MIT project, which sets up their line of courses free of charge. Then, there is a space for an agenda wherein public goods could be shared with private providers.
Higher Education must be considered as a public good, addressed to achieve a sustainable development, with greater equity among the countries and within them. An education oriented to have responsible citizens, locally and globally.
This is the most desirable scenario for both, the non-advanced and advanced countries.
In the non-advanced countries, academic institutes would be participating in the globalization of knowledge in an interactive way, absorbing knowledge but also producing knowledge relevant for their societies, which in turn would allow for
26 “Those countries that are not able to achieve models that would guarantee quality of their higher educational system are destined to remain in the periphery, that is, outside the new global economic tendency.” (Hayward, 2001).
16

17 interaction with universal knowledge. For the advanced countries it would be also the best scenario, knowing that, when cultures exclude, they lose; but if the cultures include, they win.
The international systems of accreditation should be done with a criteria of cooperation, taking into account the different cultures and traditions of the countries.
27
Within the frame of a sustainable international politics, that would be oriented towards an adequate management of the transnational providers, conciliating the public and private sector of higher education, and the interests and needs of the educational communities. It could be done through accredited transnational instances, guaranteeing the quality of the education, as well as the interests of the countries with less competitive institutions.
At an international level, it is necessary to insist upon continuing to develop an intelligible inclusive globalization agenda with goals oriented to a global democracy.
Higher Education as a global public good must be a priority in the construction of global and local citizenship. The values of the global public good of higher education must be above the current market tendencies, and not otherwise. This should be done hastily as there is the risk to let the undesirable options impose themselves.
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