The formal and informal procedures for the opening and operation of universities from the CONAFU, Peru

Abstract

To create a university in Peru is not easy. One does not only must abide the formal requirements of the regulatory standards of CONAFU, it is also necessary to mobilize a set of formal and informal actors that can block or weaken the bureaucratic barriers. This paper shows the mechanisms and strategies of the actors who are used to avoid the formal procedures. These players have strategies to block decisions of CONAFU, to set legal mechanism in the judiciary, and to create schools outside the legal formality. Thus, the real reason to create universities in Peru appears as follows: many universities instead of focusing on academic logic, they focus on economic and political logic in order to gain profits. And how these benefits are sustained? The benefits are sustained on the privilege that all Peruvian universities have: the autonomy.