How far will the public policies of higher education in Venezuela?

Abstract

In the framework of the key role of higher education for the development of society, we understand the public policy in this field as the decision-making assembly and non-decisions with respect to the tertiary sector of the country's education, by the government or institutions. Also, we assume that the process of establishing a public policy - in any field - assume both its design and implementation and evaluation of its results. Starting from these premises, this chapter explains the historical context and background of higher education policies in Venezuela in the last twelve years (1999-2011), to highlight the particular feature that it takes this country during that period. Only with the panorama that offers this context and its history, as the setting for the design and implementation of higher education policies, it is possible to understand or approach to the description of the factors that determine them and their characteristics. In this work - as far as possible, given the lack of reliable information - we approach the evaluation of the results of the policies implemented and their possible future implications. In Venezuela, the facts indicate that the trend of the core concept of public policy is oriented towards more control and state intervention and focus on the establishment of conditions that tend to strike the college market; whereas in most of the region and even the world, the trend observed is marked by the discourse of commodification and its impact on the state's role in their treatment of higher education.