(Higher Education funding model in Mexico. The peculiarities of institutional productivity)

Abstract

Education provides knowledge, innovates, and enriches culture, spirit, and values. In this sense, economic policies prioritize the strengthening of educational systems at all levels on their agenda. Although in the Mexican case, the financing of the basic and upper secondary level is entirely in charge of the state, with respect to the higher level, it does not have the same scheme and its financing responds to different external factors. Likewise, elements such as growing demand, teaching quality, and an educational model that responds to society’s demand, are generally ignored, and with this, the allocation of resources is inefficient, generating situations of low educational quality and other weaknesses in schools educational systems.
Under this scenario, financing in higher education and the strategies to achieve efficiency in its allocation and use, constitute a real challenge. In this document, the financing criteria for the Public Universities of Mexico are analysed, verifying their application in the allocation of the ordinary federal subsidy established by the Undersecretary of Higher Education, (Secretaría de Educación Superior (SES). For this, multivariate analysis techniques and information on the institutional productivity of 34 Public Universities are used. In turn, the allocation of resources to higher education in various countries is analysed, emphasizing the Mexican case. Finally, the results suggest that the institutional productivity criteria are not considered for the financing of higher education and that their increase or decrease is due to factors outside the sector, therefore, a strategy is proposed for their regularization for the benefit of the universities public.