Jorge Balan

Focus areas: Public policy in higher education, International migration, academic mobility and brain drain, Higher education and inequality in Latin America.

Jorge Balan conducts research on public policy in higher education in Latin America on issues of differentiation and academic quality, the growth of strengthening of research universities, and access and equity policies. He is an active consultant with international organizations working in these fields.

Building upon his background in the study of migration, Balan is also interested also in the mobility of highly skilled workers and the role of immigration and higher education policies in the advanced countries on brain drain and brain gain.

He is the editor, with Phillip Altbach, of World Class Worldwide: Research Universities in Asia and Latin America, and Latin America''s New Knowledge Economy, as well as the author of many articles and reports appearing in academic journals, edited books, and the specialized media.

Before joining SIPA, Balan was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto and previously a senior program officer in higher education with The Ford Foundation. He was a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and held professorial appointments in several universities in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States.

Balan earned a first degree at the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He received postdoctoral fellowships from the Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. For two decades he was a senior researcher, and director, at CEDES, a private nonprofit social science research center in Buenos Aires, where he currently is a member of the advisory board.

Education

• PhD in Sociology, University of Texas at Austin
• University of Buenos Aires