Trends in higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean, educational goals, financing of universities, and future prospects are discussed. Attention is directed to the expansion of higher education, the relationship of expansion to the social structure and to democratization, access to higher education by women, access in relation to geographical location, enrollment in different courses of study, changes in the internal structure of higher education, open universities in Latin America, the link between education and work, and the role of scientific and technological research in the university structure. In the majority of countries in the region, a large number of pupils are excluded from primary school and the first part of secondary education. Higher education applicants come mainly from the middle and upper classes. However, social differentiation is less likely to be maintained during continued educational expansion in the context of a productive economy. The need to stimulate research and the role of the university in this process is an obvious task for higher education in the future. The most important experiments in open higher education systems are taking place in Venezuela, Mexico, and Costa Rica. (SW)