La crisis de fin de siglo en la UNAM: financiamiento y gratuidad

Abstract

The article deals with the funding crisis experienced by the National Autonomous University of Mexico -UNAM within the framework of the transformations undergone by the Mexican State since the 1980s when, under the neoliberal context, it ceased to be a welfare State to abandon its historical commitment with public education. It describes the student resistance movement which, with the 1999-2000 strike, prevented the increase of the fees, nowadays symbolic due to the fact that they have not been raised since 1947. The students organized a movement against the privatization and in defense of free higher education. The history of UNAM is briefly sketched, and some figures are presented related to its fees, enrolment and the budgetary deterioration of this institution during the last thirty years. The text draws a broad picture of previous student movements in defense of the public and free university, with the purpose of clarifying the process of transformation that has afflicted at the same time the State and public higher education in Mexico. A reflection is made about the new scenario for the public universities, with the understanding that with the new philosophy of the Mexican State it will be impossible to resolve their economic problems, making it necessary for them to establish alternatives for funding, mechanisms to make better use of the existing resources, and to promote a bureaucratic reform, since under the current situation simply raising fees would not solve the funding problem, but would make the university elitist.

Investigaciones sobre los efectos de la neoliberalización de la educación superior pública en América Latina1

“…Cuando se habla de resistencia al neoliberalismo, se suele pensar y estudiar movimientos sociales masivos (ALCÁNTARA; LLOMOVATTE; ROMÃO, 2013; BERTELY-BUSQUETS, 2016; GARCÍA; ORTIZ-CONTRERAS, 2016). Así, Díaz Escoto (2007), a partir de datos históricos y cifras oficiales, señala que la huelga estudiantil en la UNAM (1999)(2000), en contra de la privatización y en defensa de la gratuidad de la educación superior, impidió el aumento de las cuotas y evitó el elitismo en la universidad. De Moraes Freire (2008) destaca que a partir de 2007 surgió un nuevo movimiento estudiantil en Brasil, principalmente en contra de la Reforma Universitaria y los escándalos de corrupción.…”

#YoSoy132 and the ‘Mexican Spring’ of 2012: Between Electoral Engagement and Democratisation

“…However, at no point was it as radical, either in its demands or its practices, as the Ultras (extremists) of the 1999-2000 CGH student occupation movement. This shut down Mexico's most important public university and prevented the introduction of even minimal fee hikes, which has had a lasting effect in slowing down the neoliberalisation of the Mexican state universities, although this varies and some provincial state universities charge as much as private universities (Díaz Escoto, 2007).…”