Deregulation of Higher Education, Diversification of Private Universities and University Experiences of Inequality in Peru

The chapter presents a ‘snapshot’ of the Peruvian university system more than 20 years after its opening to private investment and before the completion of the licencing process in 2021 under the University Act of 2014 and the implementation of a new regulation. The expansion of the university system in the country spurred the creation of institutions and increased enrolment in the private higher education sector. Meanwhile, private universities diversified in terms of quality, student profiles and ‘horizontal’ differences such as teaching orientation, curriculum and visions of the role of university education. Instead of reducing inequalities, opening higher education to private investment resulted in a stratified university system, with higher quality and more expensive universities practically inaccessible to students from lower socio-economic strata, whose demand is met by cheaper, lower quality and less reputable private universities. Yet, some lower-class students have experienced a certain degree of social mobility. Although their ability to reach higher positions in the social structure and enjoy greater equality of opportunity is limited, this mobility represents a significant structural change which leads the authors to analyse the social differentiation processes triggered by the development of private higher education across and within its different components.