In search of uruguayan higher education quality assurance: a case of late adoption and structural assimetry

Abstract

The chapter analyzes the case of higher education evaluation policies in Uruguay, the only country within MERCOSUR which did not generate neither a national nor a regional accrediting agency and whose public debate on evaluation has very special features. The paper presents the case of Uruguay, in the context of the countries of the region and describes and identifies the major initiatives on evaluation, accreditation and quality assurance in the country. This sector of public policy appears crossed by two key dimensions to understand the domestic case: first a very strong structural asymmetry of the higher education system in transition to new scenarios. Second, his condition of late adopter raises special challenges for the country, which differ from those faced by all those countries where defined public policies have been adopted. The final discussion of the initiatives and ongoing discussion leads to the conclusion that public policy evaluation and accreditation of higher education are concrete and historical products, they can not be transferred uncritically from one country to another, neither from a historical period to another, especially one of acceleration of global and local trends of transformation. In such conditions, a certain amount of critical imagination is required and the relevant chapter provides conceptual categories to take on the task of building a culture of evaluation in the Uruguayan higher education.