In this article we aim to address some issues of equity in higher education, from the particular perspective of Latin American reality. Our interest is highlight the fact of the theoretical and methodological positions through which equity policies are defined in the field of higher education and how social meanings and ways are established around them. In the first part, a brief description of the scenarios of higher education in Latin America is done, both in regard to the socio-political structural processes and the dynamics of higher education systems. In the second part, a conceptual reconstruction is approached to allow us to show the movements operating in university policies in recent decades which have resulted in the implementation of the so called policies of equity. In the third part of the paper, different levels of specification of the concept of equity in university dynamics are analyzed, which account for their productive potential practices. Finally, we describe some of the most important initiatives displayed in recent years by some countries of the region framed in equity policies, focusing on their effects and scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]