Brazil’s academic capitalism vs Venezuela’s populism

By Katherine Forestier. Latin America is beginning to fall into two distinct higher education camps, with some countries pursuing ‘academic capitalism’ – including collaborations with rich countries of the North rather than within the region – and other countries preferring a more populist route, an international higher education conference heard this week. Orlando Albornoz of Universidad Central de Venezuela described Latin America as divided into nations following academic capitalism such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, versus those preferring academic populism: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In a provocative speech at the British Council’s Going Global 2013 conference in Dubai from 4-6 March, Albornoz criticised Brazil in particular for following the academic capitalism path and as being “a good example of what should not be done”. Read more...