Abstract:

The world economy is increasingly depending on knowledge. This is pushing toward a global shift from the development based on the exploitation of natural resources to one based on science and technology. The future of non-developed and developing countries depends on their capacity to adapt to this transformation. During the last decade, several Latin American countries have made important efforts to increase their science, technology and innovation production capacities. These efforts have resulted in increasing scientific production. However, their capacity to produce local technology and innovation seems still week. Despite these efforts, their economies continue to rely on the export of primary products of low technological value. Changing this path is the main challenge for the coming years and, given the limited participation of the private sector in R&D activities, universities remain the key actor in any attempt at transformation.

Therefore, the objective of this presentation is to analyze the link between University and society within the Latin American context, aiming to identify bottlenecks and opportunities to promote the transfer of knowledge and technology to public, private and social organizations.
This is a comparative analysis based on secondary sources and statistical data available at the regional level. The main result of this analysis will be a regional typology of the relationship between University and Society that reflects the different strategies used by each country, its limitations, and strengths.

Keywords:

Latin America Education, science, knowledge, economy.