Venezuela: Higher education, neoliberalism and socialism

In this chapter we analyse the Higher Education For All (HEFA) policies and practices in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In the construction of a 21st Century Socialism, universal access to higher education has not only become a constitutional right but assumes a pivotal role in both the repayment of the social debt and in the country’s ‘endogenous development’. We contextualise HEFA with exclusion from access to lower education levels under 1990s neoliberalism and draw attention to the non-formal education programmes (missions), which support the HEFA policies. We explore the strategic role ascribed to HE in the Bolivarian government’s pursuance of social transformation and argue that HEFA poses a counter-hegemonic challenge to the prevalent global HE agenda of commoditisation and privatisation. We conclude that Venezuela’s holistic approach towards a more egalitarian society should receive substantially more attention by the international education and development community than is currently the case.