Challenges of university regionalization in Costa Rica

Abstract

One of the most relevant contemporary challenges for Governments is to achieve a successful regionalization of
public politics. Two of the guiding principles of universities should be the search for equity and social inclusion.
To be able to fulfill this, universities should eagerly foster the transfer of programs and legal authority to the regions,
instead of favoring centralism to the so called “university metropolis”, such has been the tendency in Latin America
and Costa Rica. The search for an integral regional development must be strengthened by means of a social agreement
among different social figures. In Costa Rica in the last decades, public universities have been able to increase
the educational coverage, the quota, and the allocated budget to the regional headquarters. In spite of these efforts,
the investment in the university regional headquarters continues being insufficient and contrasting against the one
allocated to the central headquarters.