Significance and role of the universities: Medina Echavarria’s view

Medina Echavarria’s thinking on the subject of the University can easily be outlined. However, a detailed treatment implies the double task of dealing both with the variety of situations in Latin American universities and with the complexity of Medina’s thinking. Each of these tasks is difficult enough in itself; together, they constitute an almost insuperable challenge, at least for my abilities. I have therefore concluded that the most sensible method might perhaps be to examine what are or what were Medina’s main concerns with respect to the University, and the extent to which its subsequent development has met those concerns or to what degree they have lost their validity.