The public university in Latin America. Essay in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the journal Higher Education and Society (UNESCO-IESALC)

Abstract

This essay is a historical memory and an invitation to utopia.  It focuses on the public university in Latin America under the precept that every public university is by definition a responsible institution committed to the flourishing of the common good, through the exercise in its teaching, research, extension and its multiple services oriented by its civic role and commitment to the education of the citizen. While many private universities could and should be committed to the common good of society as a whole, this is not always the case.  It also seeks to promote an optimistic stance towards the future of the public university and its possible contributions to the common good.  This text synthesizes some of the major theoretical contributions developed in the continent, sometimes intimately linked to universities, as well as some of the dilemmas faced by these institutions in the first two decades of the new century. Faced with the challenges of the moment, universities should consider the urgency of cultivating the seeds of public intellectuals for the defense of the common good and the construction of new possible utopias.