Despite the great steps that humanity has taken towards development, the benefits have not been distributed equally. In response to this, social entrepreneurship and social innovation offer a new perspective to adapt systems to the most pressing global problems. Faced with this, Latin America has not been the exception, being one of the most unequal regions of the planet. As a result, several social programs have been developed, but most of them with a welfare focus, which see communities as a passive actor. Under these modern and changing conditions, education must strengthen its role as a social agent of transformation. To do this, education models must evolve from an industrial approach, where Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) provide companies with trained people, towards a commitment to meet the needs of students and contemporary societies.

The objective of this study was to identify the key elements to establish a social entrepreneurship program in the Latin American university context, considering the success factors and the challenges to be faced. The information was collected through qualitative research focused on interviews with experts and analysis of secondary literature. The cases analyzed were four Latin American universities: Popular University of the State of Puebla – UPAEP (Puebla, Mexico), Tecnológico de Monterrey – Guadalajara Campus (Mexico), Universidad del Desarrollo – UDD (Concepción, Chile) and College of Higher Administration Studies – CESA (Bogotá, Colombia)