Universities in Latin America
Higher Education in Latin America
Introduction
What are the most popular Universities in each Latin American country? uniRank tries to answer this question by publishing a list of Latin American countries and providing a ranking of their higher-education institutions meeting the following uniRank selection criteria:
- being chartered, licensed or accredited by the appropriate higher education-related organization in each Latin American country
- offering at least four-year undergraduate degrees (bachelor degrees) or postgraduate degrees (master or doctoral degrees)
- delivering courses predominantly in a traditional, face-to-face, non-distance education format
Latin American Universities by Country
Latin American Universities Search Engine New
searching 1,788 universities in Latin America
Snapshot of Higher Education in Latin America (2020 data)
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Latin American Universities World Representation
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uniRank Latin American Universities World Representation Index: 13.4%
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Public vs Private Universities in Latin America
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Non-profit vs for-profit Universities in Latin America
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Challenges for the higher education system in Latin America
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Top 200 Universities in Latin America
How many Universities are there in Latin America? According to the uniRank database in 2020 there are currently 1,834 officially recognized higher-education institutions in Latin America. Considering that the uniRank database includes a total number of 13,723 officially recognized higher education institutions the proportion of Latin American Universities in the world is as follows:
Being the estimated population of the Latin American area around 8,6% of the total world population (source: United Nations' World Population Prospects, the 2015 Revision), the Latin American Higher education system and offerings seem to be moderately underrepresented in the world at least in terms of the number of higher education institutions.
How many public and private Universities are there in Latin America? Out of the total number of 1,834 recognized higher educations institutions in Latin America included in the uniRank database, 820 are public (i.e. officially affiliated to or run by national, state or local governments) and 963 are private. The type of control of the remaining Latin American Universities included in the uniRank database is unknown or it has not been reported.
In terms of the number of public versus private Universities, the uniRank database shows a moderate balance between public versus private higher education in the Latin American area as a whole. However, 120 out of the top 200 Universities in Latin America (60%) are public higher education institutions. Differences and peculiarities may still exist in each Latin American country higher education system.
What type of entities are Universities in Latin America? Out of the total number of 1,834 recognized higher educations institutions in Latin America included in the uniRank database, 1,183 are non-profit and 69 are for-profit. The type of entity of the remaining Latin American Universities included in the uniRank database is unknown or it has not been reported. As a general rule, the vast majority of Latin American public higher education institutions are not-for-profit organisations, not necessarily in legal terms but certainly in terms of nature and institutional purposes such as role, scope and mission.
What are the main challenges that higher education in Latin America has to currently face? According to uniRank the main issues of the higher education system in Latin America are inadequate funding, low research output and innovation (mainly coming from few Universities) and lack of harmonization of the higher education systems in the Latin American area as a whole.
uniRank publishes twice a year a non-academic ranking of the top 200 Universities in Latin America based on valid, unbiased and non-influenceable web metrics provided by independent web intelligence sources. Please read the ranking methodology in the About Us page for more information.
According to the 2020 uniRank University Ranking this is the list of the top 10 Universities in Latin America:2020 Top 10 Universities in Latin America
| Rank | University | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Universidade de São Paulo |  br |
| 2 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | mx |
| 3 | Universidad de Buenos Aires | ar |
| 4 | Tecnológico de Monterrey | mx |
| 5 | Universidad de Chile | cl |
| 6 | Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina | br |
| 7 | Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul | br |
| 8 | Universidad Nacional de Colombia | co |
| 9 | Universidade Estadual de Campinas | br |
| 10 | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro | br |
more top Universities in Latin America
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