SUMMARY DOCTORAL THESIS

The objective of the present thesis is to analyze the geographical distribution of the university offer in each one of the countries of the MERCOSUR and to determine a model of university decentralization negotiated by the own Municipalities or Departmental Governments of the Uruguay.  

It is studied in a first phase the process of integration of the MERCOSUR in their incident on the economy, the productive investments and the axis of influence on the populations in the four countries that compose it.  

It is analyzed, the university decentralization in the four countries, identifying the existing offering in each one, observing its fair distribution with geographical and population criteria.  

In a second phase the analysis is centered in the case of Uruguay, observing the existing educational decentralization, and the politics of decentralization that have been developed.  

Also it is analyzed the university formative needs in two state departments of the country.  

With these analysis of the university demands, attending to the existing educational offering, to the concentration by regions of the population and of the productive areas, a possible model of university decentralization is proposed where the initiative and the management of it will be carried out by the own Municipalities. 

The objective of this model is to make the Municipalities protagonists theirselves with self initiative in educational matters attending the needs that their own state department will require, in order to assure the local development and to avoid thus any migration of the young population to the capital of the country to get university studies, with the negative economic, family and social consequences that this suppose for the students and the whole state department’s society.   

The methodology fundamentally used is based on two types of analysis.  

Analysis of the compiled information existing on the matter, that includes

Analysis of the demand, through surveys:

Being carried out two surveys in the period 2002 to 2004, to students of the two last years of secondary before entering University, to determine the formative needs in a region of the country, and to compare them with the analyses already carried out of another different region.  

The obtained results were 11 Educational Centers polled with a total of 1977 students, 1152 of 5th year and 825 of 6th year, each year, during two years, 2002 and 2004.