Applying grounded theory to 33 expert interviews about the underperformance of higher education in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico, this study indicated that the historical tradition of autonomy has fostered weak government control, revealing a host of issues common across these countries in their higher education system. This study complicates the overall hegemonic discourse around academic capitalism departing from strictly neoliberal approaches favoring markets and deregulation for global competition. Instead, participants, who are influential leaders in the sector, favor government intervention that protects university autonomy in order to boost the performance of higher education, not for global competition, but for national development.