Efforts to expand and improve the equity and quality of university systems lead to the need to think reflectively about their regulatory and financing systems and the expectations that both their States and their citizens place in them. In this sense, it is essential to develop comparative knowledge that will help those of us who inhabit this part of the planet, as well as its governments and political and university representatives, to learn from the experiences of others and to collaborate jointly in the search for solutions. From this perspective, this series of articles that we make available to you constitute a contribution to the reflection that we must develop in this area, both specialists and governors and ordinary citizens, the latter increasingly informed, creating opinion and also pressure on their political systems and on their educational institutions. IESALC, through its journal Higher Education and Society, aims to contribute to this reflective challenge, reviewing and presenting significant aspects of Higher Education policy in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica, as well as a conceptual framework on global trends in Higher Education financing.