Covarage in higher education: a question of quantity or quality? The experience of the University of Guadalajara

Abstract

The growth of the school-age population, the increase of education levels required by the labor market, and the compulsory high school education, are the main factors of pressing to demand for educational services at the higher level, and begin to be one of the fundamental challenges that the country must resolve to consolidate their development process .This population, that aspires to obtain a place in the higher education system, can be divided into three main groups: those who enter Higher Education Institutions (IES) private elite; those looking for a space in public IES, mainly in autonomous public universities; and the rest, that not getting a space in public entities, entering private IES known as demand absorption in accordance with their capacity to pay. Ensuring education for the latter group of people, it should be addressed by the state as a problem of quantity or quality? This is the axis of reflection presented in this article, in particular the experience of the University of Guadalajara.