Evaluation and autonomy in public universities in Latin America

The main topic of this text is the analysis of the impact that policies and practices of evaluation and accreditation have on the autonomy of public universities, within the framework of the research Autonomy and Legitimacy of Higher Education in Latin America: a comparative study, carried out by professors from the National University of Colombia. The focus of "quality assurance" is aim at ensuring compliance in a minimum acceptable level of certain specifications (Gonzalez, 2003) has been imposed in most countries and institutions. However there is a standardizing tendency that carries a certain isomorphism in national policies and regulations and institutional practices although there are differences in concepts, methodologies, actions and effects of the assessment between both countries and universities. In some cases, evaluation and accreditation have become a fetish (Granovsky, 2003) because they are used mainly as tools of information and control. However there are also examples that stand them out as institutions that produce sense and dynamize processes of individual, collective or institutional change.