LATIN AMERICAN CENTER OF
RESEARCH IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Uruguay
In the Uruguayan context, the term "higher" is used to distinguish different levels of formal education. It can either refer to the second cycle of secondary education or tertiary education (Higher Education).”
Uruguay
Population: 3,473,730
Area: 176,215
Spanish language
Higher Education Enrollment: 45,980
The Educational System of Uruguay presents important differences in relation to Brazil, on this page, as the research progresses we will update the comparative data between the countries studied. For now, you will find in this space general information about the Education System in Uruguay.
Education Statistical Yearbook 2021 (Div. 2023)
Higher Education in Uruguay
Brief introduction to the Uruguayan Higher Education System (SUES) The Uruguayan Higher Education system is made up of 8 levels and educational modalities ( 1) :
Public teacher training.
Professional technical training: public and private non-university (taught by non-university and university tertiary HEIs).
Non-university and university tertiary police and military training (public institutions).
Public and private university education (Universities and University Institutes).
Distance and blended education, conceived as a specific form of formal education and defined independently.
Three large groups of higher education institutions can be distinguished, based on a total of 31 higher education institutions: 10 non-university higher education institutions; 7 training in education; 7 university institutes; and, 7 universities (only two public).
For almost the entire 20th century, higher education in Uruguay was covered by the University of the Republic (public), the only university until 1985 (Lizbona & Rumeau, 2013): Public higher education (university and non-university) has historically been free access and open (Udelar students never lose their student status).
The expansion of the Uruguayan higher education system is recent and is not characterized so much by institutional differentiation, but by the creation and growth of the private sector (mainly in the 1980s and 1990s [ 2] and, more recently, by an increasing process of decentralization of supply, dizzying increase in enrollments and creation of a second public university (3) :
In 2021, the public higher education offer served 86.8% of students in the sector (23.2% in teacher training and 63.6% in the public sector at different levels) and private university education, made up of 7 university institutes and 5 universities, covered 13.2% of total enrollments (4).
Enrollments covered exclusively by public and private university institutions represent 82.7% of the total number of higher education students: 75.5% in the public university sector and 74.6% at the University of the Republic (Udelar).
With the increase in enrollment, the socioeconomic composition of the student body expanded, largely as a result of the territorial distribution of the social origins of new recruits: access for lower-income social sectors became more concentrated in the interior of the territory national, associated with the aforementioned decentralization process and the increase in public sector supply outside the capital area.
The private sector, made up mainly of small and medium-sized universities, represents 87% of institutions and concentrates courses in the humanities. The most technologically demanding and expensive courses tend to be taught by public institutions, which are predominantly large research universities. The public sector is free, while the private sector charges monthly fees.
Thus, the relative weight of Udelar is an identifying characteristic of the Uruguayan higher education system: 90.3% of total university enrollments in the country and 98.9% of the total public university sector.
Excluding students enrolled in postgraduate programs, the system served, in 2021, more than two hundred and eighty thousand students.
In the evolution of the number of enrollments in the different administrative forms, we observed a strong increase from 2010 onwards.
However, it is not the first access to university education that explains the substantial annual increase in enrollments, but rather the strong re-enrollment component observed in the public sector.
Furthermore, multiple registration and re-enrollment in the Uruguayan public system is due to the fact that education is free and there are no filters or limitations on students' entry or stay. These are factors that proved to be positive when associated with the students' entry age and can help explain the global evolution of enrollments.
As already mentioned, a symptom of the uniqueness of the Uruguayan system is, in addition to the relative weight that Udelar represents in terms of total enrollment in higher education in Uruguay, but the particular conditions of accessibility and permanence in the public sector.
Ley General de Educación 18,437 (LGE, 2008) and changes introduced by Ley de Urgente Consideración 19,889 (LUC, 2020).
Chronology: 1985 - Catholic University of Uruguay (private confessional); 1996 - ORT University (private secular with Jewish identity; member of the World ORT); 1997 - University of Montevideo (private secular with Christian identity open to people of all beliefs); 1998 - Universidad de la Empresa (private, secular and with strong links to the business sector); and, 2017 - CLAEH University (university with a humanist identity and independent of any religion, ideology and political party).
2012 - Technological University (autonomous public entity, with decentralized educational coverage: outside the country's capital).
Private higher education is regulated by Decree Law No. 15,661, of October 29, 1984 and its regulatory decrees: Decree No. 308/995 and Decree No. 104/014.
Professor Gabriel Errandonea, from the Universidad de la República do Uruguay, participated in the Seminar "Higher Education Policies in Latin America: Expansion, Differentiation and Equity" with the lecture "Panorama of Higher Education in Uruguay"
Coordinator of the Enseñanza Information Systems Unit
Enseñanza Sectorial Commission - Pro Rectorado de Enseñanza
University of the Republic