The growth of higher education in Costa Rica

Abstract

The last ten years have seen the rise of different private institutions offering higher education service at the university level, first the Autonomous University of Central America (UACA) appeared in 1976, subsequently offering postgraduate services to the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE), the National University of San Diego California, and the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico.
In a country where education is a constitutional right guaranteed by the State, and served by the State free of charge from preduate to university levels; where in the past decade the University of Costa Rica has extended its services to the Regional Centers, and created the Graduate Studies System (SEP) in 1975, where three new public institutions of higher education (the Costa Rican Institute of Technology (ITCR) have been founded in June 1971; the National University -UNA- in February 1973; and the Remote State University (UNED) in March 1977) , the birth and development of private universities reflects a social situation that needs to be understood to act on it.