Times Higher Education (THE) developed their first ranking of the Top Latin America Universities in 2016, based on 13 indicators. The goal of the ranking is to help to kick-start a debate about future benchmarking for the region’s higher education institutions.

The ranking showed that Brazil is the clear regional leader, with half the top 10 places and a total of 23 positions in the 50-strong list , more than any other country.

Chile is the second most-represented nation, followed by Mexico and Colombia.

The top 10 universities include:

• University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
• State University of Campinas (Brazil)
• Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile)
• University of Chile (Chile)
• Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil)
• Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico)
• National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico)
• University of the Andes (Colombia)

According to local experts, Brazil’s success is due to its high research outputs, high production of patents, and high research and development spending as a proportion of gross domestic product (1.15%) compared other countries in the region, such as Mexico (0.426%) and Chile (0.363%). In addition, the country has large amounts of funding from the state and selective student recruitment.

On a regional scale, universities still receive low amounts of money per student compared to countries in other regions.

Furthermore, the region faces several challenges in terms of higher education, particularly in those countries that provide public education and have subdued to economic instability.

Besides, the expansion of private higher education organizations poses another challenge for public universities: keeping course quality and standards high with so many smaller private providers is a major challenge for the sector, particularly in the case of technical and vocational training. Nevertheless, many consider the rise of for-profit providers a major success as it provides the opportunity to access higher education for a large number of poorer students.

A very interesting point is that, beyond funding, some believe that the problems with Latin America’s universities relate to the foundation of those institutions.

South America and Mexico imported a Spanish model, strongly influenced by the French. This means that many elite universities have developed their courses along the “Napoleonic” tradition of higher education, based on training professionals rather than fostering broader scientific and scholarly enquiry.

This is quite different to the Humboldtian model (Germany, UK and US), in which universities are oriented to science creation and, although they are state-dependent, an important value is academic autonomy

Moreover, the Napoleonic model usually means that long degree programmes based on traditional disciplines are still dominant. This results in higher education being expensive to fund for students, families and the state.

Experts state that, in order to strengthen their role in society, universities in the region must focus on research and development, and boost technological innovation. They must shift from teaching-only organisations to research and innovation centres.

The development of information on higher education institutions, such as THE’s ranking can help deliver key information for policymakers. THE’s summit , held in Colombia a few days ago, did not only provide a chance to exchange ideas on how and what data should be used, but also to analyse how policies and rankings to improve the region’s higher education sector might be achieved.

Source: Times Higher Education