Privatization and Inequality in Access to Higher Education in Latin America

Abstract

policies. Although they have opened the doors of higher education to historically excluded sectors, the ability of these policies to reduce the effect of social origins is still questioned. The objective of this study is to explore the effect of privatization in higher education on the inequality of access to this educational level. The methodology was quantitative and used the population censuses conducted between 1990 and 2011 in 12 Latin American countries. The sample included respondents aged between 18 and 24, who lived with their parents when interviewed. Through logistic and multinomial regression models, the effect (and potential variation) of social origins – understood as economic and sociocultural resources – on general access to higher education was estimated. The results show that the level of privatization does matter: although in countries with a high level of privatization the probability of transition to higher education increased, the effect of social origins strengthen after expansion. It is concluded that the expanded privatization policies did not contribute to reducing the inequality of access, since the gaps in opportunities related to social origins persist.