La crisis de fin de siglo en la UNAM: financiamiento y gratuidad

Resumo

The article deals with the funding crisis experienced by the National Autonomous University of Mexico - UNAM within the framework of the transformations undergone by the Mexican State since the 1980s when, under the neoliberal context, it ceased to be a welfare State to abandon its historical commitment with public education. It describes the student resistance movement which, with the 1999-2000 strike, prevented the increase of the fees, nowadays symbolic due to the fact that they have not been raised since 1947. The students organized a movement against the privatization and in defense of free higher education. The history of UNAM is briefly sketched, and some figures are presented related to its fees, enrolment and the budgetary deterioration of this institution during the last thirty years. The text draws a broad picture of previous student movements in defense of the public and free university, with the purpose of clarifying the process of transformation that has afflicted at the same time the State and public higher education in Mexico. A reflection is made about the new scenario for the public universities, with the understanding that with the new philosophy of the Mexican State it will be impossible to resolve their economic problems, making it necessary for them to establish alternatives for funding, mechanisms to make better use of the existing resources, and to promote a bureaucratic reform, since under the current situation simply raising fees would not solve the funding problem, but would make the university elitist.