Higher education in Latin America is at a ¡°historical crossroads¡± and must act decisively to end inequalities of access, a conference has heard.

Nilma Lino Gomes, former minister of women, racial equality and human rights in Brazil, told delegates at ÌÇÐÄVlog¡¯s Latin America Universities Summit 2025 that the relationship between higher education and human rights is filled with ¡°contradictions and tensions¡±.

¡°In Brazil and other countries, higher education is still dealt with as a space of privilege, associated to individual merit and competitiveness,¡± she said. ¡°This excludes and ignores the ethical and political aspects of higher education as a place that welcomes diversity and fosters equality.¡±

Gomes, who was also the first black woman in Brazil to lead a federal public university, urged the sector to build more democratic and more diverse institutions, with?an agenda that is more focused on equity.

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She said this was particularly important given the current state of the world, adding: ¡°This becomes more urgent when we see the attacks to academic freedom in the world and increasing criminalisation of critical thought and denial of scientific production.¡±

Higher education is no longer solely for the elite and seen as impossible for children from public schools, and this has happened because of social pressure, added Gomes, speaking at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

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Gomes said universities are not ¡°hollow structures¡± but are ¡°stuffed with people¡±. But she warned that Latin American curricula are often Eurocentric and reproduce ableist and colonialist mindsets.

As a result, universities need to ¡°reinvent¡± themselves as venues that welcome people from all walks of life and promote human rights, she said.?

¡°We are at a historical crossroads that we need to face. Either higher education will continue to reproduce inequalities or higher education will take a public ethical and social role to become truly plural, to produce knowledge synced with the dynamism of our times.

¡°This choice is not a technical one, it¡¯s a political choice and that¡¯s why our institutions need to be continually pressured by societies.

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¡°They need to be places where the young can voice their claims and can bring upon social transformation. This is good pressure, not authoritarian pressure ¨C but one that seeks transformation.¡±

Francesc Pedr¨®, director of the International Institute for ÌÇÐÄVlog in Latin America and the Caribbean at Unesco, said everyone had a right to claim their share of higher education.

¡°This region has reached a consensus in recent decades about higher education being a public good and it is the duty of the states to provide it.

¡°We have accumulated this regional consensus that no other region has reached yet. It¡¯s a patrimony that Latin America can share with other regions.¡±

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Pedr¨® praised Brazilian universities which ¡°shine¡± as a reference for what quality provision of higher education can achieve in Latin America, as well as being good examples of valuing equity.

¡°These are the two sides of the same coin of the public commitment to higher education.¡±

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com