Regional Conference on Policies and Strategies for the Transformation of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Which I Am Proud to Inaugurate
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Collection: "Responses" United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Regional Center for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean Ministry of Higher Education, Republic of Cuba Towards a new higher education Proceedings of the Regional Conference Policies and Strategies for the Transformation of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Havana, Cuba, from 18 to 22 November 1996. IAUP, IAU, AUGM, IDRC, CSUCA, I0HE, UDUAL, UNAMAZ, UNICA, WUS CRESALC/UNESCO, Caracas, 1997 Towards a new higher education / published by CRESALC/UNESCO et al.- Caracas, Venezuela: CRESALC/UNESCO, 1997. 245 p.:il., 22 cm.-(Responses, 4).- 1. Higher Education - Latin America 2. Higher Education - Institutions 3. Higher Education - Trends and Development 4. Higher Education - Transformations 5. Higher Education - Universities I. CRESALC/UNESCO, editor II. Collection Responses II. LB2321 1997 In the collection "Responses", CRESALC/UNESCO publishes essays, studies and research related to the transformations which are taking place in the field of higher education in response to the incentives coming from the economic, political and social environment, or from the institutions of that educational level themselves, particularly in the Latin American and Caribbean countries. The positions of the authors of this book do not necessarily reflect the official points of view of UNESCO. The terms used and the presentation of data do not imply the adoption of a position by the Secretariat of the Organization either with regard to the juridical status of a particular country, territory, city or region, its authorities, or with regard to the delimitation of the national frontiers. Editor: Luis Yarzábal Design of title page Nuncia Moccia Layout, mounting and printing: Unit of Graphic Arts and Printing CRESALC/UNESCO: Luz Márquez, Nuncia Moccia, Cirilo Ramos, Gladys Marciales, Antonio J. Camacho, José A. Sánchez. Published by the Regional Centre for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CRESALC). Apartado Postal No.68394, Caracas 1060-A. Venezuela. Edition consisting of 1500 copies/February 1997 ISBN: (UNESCO) 92-9143-020-X Table of contents Presentation 5 Introduction: Strategic bases of the conference CRESALC/UNESCO 11 Opening Speeches: In search for a commitment for action Luis Yarzábal 43 Utopian realism in the reform of higher education Marco Antonio R. Dias 53 Inaugural Conferences: Higher education in Cuba: history, present situation and perspectives Fernando Vecino Alegret 71 CRESALC/UNESCO 3 Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean in its economic, political and social context Carlos Tünnermann Bernheim 99 Results: Final Report 169 Declaration about higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean 283 Guide for preparing an action plan 295 The Students' Declaration of Havana 223 Closing Speeches: Towards a new higher education Federico Mayor 219 The revolution of the consciences Fidel Castro Ruz 235 4 Presentation From 18 to 22 November 1996 the Regional Conference on Policies and Strategies for the Tramformation of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean was held in Havana, Cuba. This conference was con- vened pursuant to a decision reached in the course of the 28th General Conference of UNESCO (October/November 1995), as a preparatory fo- rum of the World Conference on Higher Education which the Organiza- tion intends to hold in the second semester of 1998. The meeting, which will be followed by similar events in Sub Sanaran Africa, the Arabian States, Asia and Europe, was organized by CRESALC in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education of the Republic of Cuba. Its basic objectives were to define the guidelines of the transfor- mation of post-secondary education and to draw up a plan of action en- abling, at that educational level, the "improvement of the pertinence and quality of its teaching, research and extension functions, offering equal opportunities to everybody by means of a permanent education without frontiers, in which merit will be the basic criterion for access, within the framework of a new concept of international cooperation". The organization and execution of the event were facilitated by the coexistence and interaction of various factors and circumstances of the educational context and environment. Particularly worthy of note is the controversy triggered in the academic and political worlds by the interpretations and recommendations of various international experts with regard to the strategies of change and development of higher edu- CRESALC/UNESCO 5 cation. Another element involved has been the reduction and reorienta- tion of investments at that educational level decided within the frame- work of the macroeconomic policies adopted in the region in accordance with recommendations of international financial organizations. Added to this is the great political interest aroused by education due to the progress made in the systems of subregional integration and to its inclusion as a principal item of the Agenda of the V Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government (Bariloche, 1995). Other im- portant incentives were the growing social concern for the pertinence and quality of the educational systems and the motivation generated by UNESCO, through the multiple consultations on the situation and the prospects of higher education, held at the world and regional level since 1990 and summarized in the Policy Paper for Change and Development in Higher Education, published by the Organization in 1995. In this context, CRESALC promoted the participation of over 4000 individuals connected with higher education in the region in the prepara- tory phase of the Conference, by holding 36 meetings: 23 at the national level and 13 at the subregional level. These meetings helped to mobilize the social actors connected with higher education around the problems to be discussed in the Conference; provided theoretical and methodologi- cal instruments for the organization of the discussions during the meet- ing; generated inputs for the supportive documents; and made it pos- sible to test and validate the work methodology designed for the Ha- vana meeting. The participants in these fora included high-level government of- ficials (presidents, vice-presidents, ministers and directors of educational policies); members of parliament; presidents, secretaries and representa- tives of regional, subregional and national university associations and other higher education institutions; rectors, vice-rectors, deans and di- rectors of administrative departments of public and private universities; professors; researchers; students; representatives of teachers and student associations; representatives of United Nations agencies and of regional integration organizations. That intense preparatory activity gave rise to 8 proceedings and 3 books related to outstanding aspects of the problems of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. The research centres and the spe- cialists entrusted with the drafting of supportive documents produced 5 principal documents and 55 basic documents respectively. The academic com- munity, on its part, prepared spontaneously 72 free papers which helped to enrich the discussions in the meeting. A representative sample of the series of actors mobilized, consist- ing of 688 individuals, belonging to all the aforementioned categories, at- PRESENTATION tended the Regional Conference, participating in the drafting of the pa- pers and in the preparation of the documents arising from it, approving them by consensus and expressing their commitment to the transforma- tion of higher education in the region. The way in which the working papers were presented and the organization of the workshops - with approximately 20 per cent of the time destined to presentations and the remaining 80 per cent to discus- sion - responded adequately to the demand of a great many participants to take part in the discussions and present their experiences. The partici- pants appreciated this distribution of the time, which is unusual in other Conferences which usually dedicate the greater part of the programme to lengthy verbal presentations. The preparatory activities and the documents of the Conference showed the consubstantiation of most of the actors mobilized with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention against discrimina- tion in education, the UNESCO Constitution and the recommendations of the International Commission on Education for the XXI century, with regard to: everybody's right to education, equal access for all in terms of the merits and capacities of each one, the transfer and shared use of knowl- edge and the development of the capacities of criticism and anticipation as regards the evolutional trends of the society. The products of the Conference, that is to say the Final Report, the Declaration on higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Guide for preparing an action plan, emphasize and discuss the nature of social welfare of higher education ; they stress its nature as an instru- ment which is "irreplaceable for human development, production, eco- nomic growth, the strengthening of cultural identity, the maintenance of social cohesion, the struggle against poverty and the promotion of a peace culture"; and they assume most of the principles defined by UNESCO in its Policy Paper for Change and Development in Higher Education and in the General Introduction prepared by CRESALC (1996). The analysis of