Higher education quality assurance in Uruguay: balance and perspective of a delayed policy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and interpret the atypical case of Uruguay related to quality assurance, evaluation and accreditation of Higher Education in Uruguay. Design/methodology/approach To do so, a Higher Education conceptual framework is developed, focusing on quality assurance and formulating some “hypotheses” (conjectural ways of thinking within a qualitative tradition). The method to collect data includes the use of document observation, secondary information from official databases and interviews with an intentional sample of 10 experts and key informants. The analysis is developed through some conceptual dimensions emerging from the precedent sources (public policy and the role of the state, changes in the system of science, technology and innovation linked to Higher Education, the influence of the regional integration process and the weak public demand for quality assurance). Findings The paper also presents and discusses the atypical country’s experience regarding the lack of a national quality assurance policy and the structural dynamic of delaying main transformations by adopting graduate changes. Research limitations/implications The study analyzes the recent process of Higher Education policies oriented to quality assurance in the two decades and a half between 1996 and 2021, focusing especially on the recent years (2019–2020). Practical implications The findings indicate that the Higher Education system needs to update its structure and shape, withdrawing fragmentation and consolidating a national system able to promote quality. The paper offers some inputs to strategic planning and debate. Social implications Reforming Higher Education is key to change the social logic of High School, which still operates as a social selective mechanism, mainly oriented to the professional application rather than to knowledge production or management. Originality/value The paper contributes to the political and academic debate through some conceptual categories emerging from the study. The previous description of academic literature about Uruguay Higher Education quality assurance (QA) did not include either the new situation created by the approval of contradictory laws or the interpretation of this public policy arranged as a “structural dynamic of delay of the main transformations by adopting graduate and incremental changes”. Whether any originality could be found in the paper, it would be this way of interpreting the process of QA in Uruguay.