The Diplomat in Spain

The Diplomat

Higher education enrollment increased in Ibero-America between 2016 and 2022, a period in which however, funding for this educational stage decreased, according to a report presented in Madrid.

The report presented by the Ibero-American General Secretary (Segib) and the University Development Center (Cinda) reveals that there has been “a significant increase in enrollment and a stagnation in financing” and highlights “challenges and progress from 2016 to 2022, including “the impact of digitalization accelerated by the pandemic.”

The study specifies that enrollment in higher education institutions increased from 21.7 million to 29.9 million students in the period 2013-2014/2020-2021.

However, “spending on the total financing of education in Ibero-America has remained at a value slightly higher than 4% of GDP,” according to a Segib press release.

The note specifies that five countries (Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic) allocate close to 20% or more of government spending on education.”

The report also identifies “seven key trends” regarding “the future of higher education in Ibero-America”: expanded access, institutional diversification, improvement in equity, progress in graduation, challenges for the teaching profession, stable but insufficient financing and lack of standardization in quality.

During the presentation of the study, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand, highlighted “the importance” for the organization of “having systematic, reliable and quality information on the evolution of Ibero-American educational systems, considered both as a whole and in an individual”.