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An integrated historical account of the Puerto Rican experience in higher education is presented by the Higher Education Task Force of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos of Hunter College, City University of New York. The present situation of Puerto Ricans in higher education on the Island and in the United States reflects the plight Puerto Ricans experience at both ends of the migratory circuit. The Island has seen a major expansion of postsecondary institutions and student enrollment, but the system is still in crisis. Advances resulting from student struggles of the 1960s and 1970s are short-lived, and the situation is worsening for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. The present expansion of college opportunities for Puerto Ricans on the Island and their contraction in the U.S. are expressions of the crisis of American capitalism and its impact on a politically and economically subordinated population. An interpretive framework that incorporates the imperialist dimension of the U.S.-Puerto Rican colonial relation is developed. Topics of discussion are: higher education under Spanish rule: 1493-1898; higher education and the Americanization program: 1898-1923; the Pan-Americanization of the university as official doctrine: 1923-1930; the great depression and the University of Puerto Rico in the 1930s; higher education and the new colonial arrangement: 1940-1974; Puerto Ricans in the United States: the struggle for access; the crisis of U.S. capitalism and its effects on the Puerto Rican population; the backlash against the Puerto Rican presence in American higher education: 1975-present; the bankruptcy of "operation bootstrap" and the permanent crisis of Puerto Rican higher education: 1974-present; prospects for change; and an agenda for research. Contains 71 references. (SM)