Major patterns of relationship between the public and private sectors in Latin American higher education are discussed. Three key evolutionary waves are identified that have led to three private-public patterns dominant in Latin America today. For both the public and private sectors, attention is directed to origins and growth, who pays and rules, and whose interests are served. For Chile, Mexico, and Brazil, in-depth case studies analyze patterns of evolution, finance, governance, and function. A regional overview, including 20 other Latin American republics, considers the extent to which the three major public/private patterns exist in finance, governance, and function. Included are comparative perspectives based on principal foreign models. In Chile private universities approximate their public counterparts; in Mexico secular elite universities dominate the private sector; and in Brazil the private sector absorbs an unusually large educational demand. Additional considerations include: the Catholic subsector, autonomy and state control, institutional centralization/decentralization, religious missions, political ideologies, economic orientations (field of study and job market), and the positive and negative aspects of privatization. (SW)