Latin America University Rankings 2022: new shoots emerge in a challenging region

Browse the Latin America University Rankings 2022 results

Since we launched our Latin America University Rankings six years ago, the region has been subjected to anti-science governments, authoritarian leaders and, like the rest of the world of course, the pandemic.

And yet the number of universities in the ranking keeps rising, and the average score per country is increasing, too. Proof, perhaps, of the resilience of the sector and of academics themselves.

Despite an anti-science government, Brazil increased the number of its universities in the ranking by five to reach 72, up from 67 last year. Of the Brazilian universities, 28 are among the top 50, and seven are in the top 10.

The second and third spots are taken by Brazilian institutions: the University of São Paulo and the University of Campinas. Both scored the highest possible marks for research while also putting in a strong performance on teaching.

The number one spot goes to the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, for the fourth year in a row, largely thanks to high scores in research and industry collaboration.

For a region with a reputation for pedagogical conservatism, there are some pockets of innovation, leading not just Latin America but the world, as we discover when we talk to a professor of education at Mexico’s Monterrey Institute of Technology about its cutting-edge teaching model.

In our analysis, we also learn that interdisciplinary projects are being used across Latin America to tackle local problems, something that Denise Pires de Carvalho, president of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, tells us is the future of higher education.

We hear a view from Venezuela, where the actions of authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro are causing mass migration and catastrophically high levels of poverty. The wounds are deep, and the impact on higher education cannot be denied, but the sector is not at death’s door yet, says Juan Carlos Navarro, an international expert in higher education and former professor at several Venezuelan universities.

This year, there are three Venezuelan universities in the rankings, up from one last year. The newly ranked Simón Bolívar University came straight into the top 100, at position 85.

We also hear about a potential new solution to some of the region’s woes in the form of shorter university courses. The World Bank’s María Marta Ferreyra explains how they could be the bridge between higher education and economies that are desperately in need of skilled workers.

There may be many challenges facing higher education in Latin America, but there is cause for optimism.