Abstract

The history of higher education demonstrates that the legitimacy of universities rests on two enduring principles: academic freedom and institutional self-governance. The Argentine University Reform of 1918 marked a turning point when students and faculty at the National University of Córdoba demanded the right to participate in decision-making, select leadership democratically, and shape curricula free from political control. This reform spread across Latin America, establishing autonomy as an academic right rather than a privilege.

Similarly, the Kalven Report (1967) at the University of Chicago articulated that universities must remain institutionally neutral but uphold the individual academic’s freedom of inquiry. Later, the Magna Charta Universitatum (1988) and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel (1997) codified this duality: administrators safeguard institutional stability, while scholars sustain intellectual independence.