The modernisation of higher education in Mexico

Following the Second World War, higher education in Mexico began a series of fundamental changes that taken together, altered the profile of the traditional university. It developed into a system which in its academic, social and political functions became highly complex as well as diverse, given the variety of institutional options and professional development schemes. The transition took place both at the institutional level and was system wide. The former was accompanied by expansion in the organisation as a whole. It involved updating the curriculum and the overhaul of administrative, managerial and planning mechanisms. At the latter level, the most significant change involved reforming the major component parts; the territorial distribution of access to education, and carried across the various fields of knowledge and disciplines, bore down on the level and allocation of different funding sources. These developments are best analysed within the perspective context of academic diversification and differentiation. © 1999 International Association of Universities. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All Rights Reserved.