An Unintended Effect of Financing the University Education of the Most Brilliant and Poorest Colombian Students: The Case of the Intervention of the <i>Ser Pilo Paga</i> Program

Medina, Pablo; Ariza, Natalia; Navas, P; Rojas, Fernando; Parody, Gina; Valdivia, J. A.; Zarama, Roberto; Penagos, Juan Felipe

doi:10.1155/2018/3528206

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The third factor that has jeopardized the legitimacy of the EQA policy relates to the contradictions arising from the connections between accreditations and the new funding mechanisms, particularly the program Ser Pilo Paga [15] (SPP), which has led to an ongoing dispute between the program’s supporters and its detractors. Program supporters have defended the positive impact that the program has on the students who benefited from SPP and its impact on the educational system as a whole (Medina et al , 2018), whereas program detractors argue that the program was not cost-effective and worsened the financial crisis of public institutions (Mora and Múnera, 2019). Regardless, it is clear from an EQA policy perspective that this relationship has undermined the original conceptualization of the model of accreditations, as institutional accreditations have become unofficial obligations for institutions that wish to benefit from indirect public funding [16].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolving legitimacy of external quality assurance in Colombian higher education

Duque

2022

QAE

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Purpose This paper aims to analyze how the legitimacy of the policy of external quality assurance (EQA) in Colombian higher education has evolved over the past 30 years through an examination of its two main instruments: the compulsory control of minimum quality standards for academic programs and institutions (registro calificado) and accreditations of excellence for programs and institutions. Design/methodology/approach Based on the methodology of process-tracing, this paper offers a review of the main sequences of the policy of EQA in Colombian higher education: the origins (1990–1998), the expansion (1998–2011) and the contestation (2011–2021). In each sequence, the sources of the substantive and procedural legitimacy of the policy are analyzed. This analysis is based on qualitative data comprising semi-structured interviews with key informants, online information from the 2011 and 2018 student protests and official documentation. Findings The policy of EQA in Colombian higher education had relatively high levels of substantive and procedural legitimacy during the first two sequences. However, the situation has become more ambivalent since 2011. On the one hand, internal contradictions and student movements’ growing criticism of neoliberal policies have undermined some of the foundations of this policy. On the other hand, higher education institutions and the Colombian Government still have a positive perception of EQA and have recently revisited the policy to address some of its shortcomings. Originality/value From a conceptual standpoint, this paper advances our understanding of how quality assurance in higher education gains, sustains or loses legitimacy by discussing and testing typologies of legitimacy in the analysis of a national system of EQA. From an empirical perspective, this paper provides a diachronic analysis of EQA in Colombian higher education, a case that has primarily been studied through a technical-rational perspective.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolving legitimacy of external quality assurance in Colombian higher education

Duque

2022

QAE

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“…The SPP demand‐based subsidy program covered about 40,000 students' tuitions and some of their living expenses in the university of the students' choice as long as they were admitted, and fulfilled the required academic and socioeconomic criteria (Medina et al., 2018). Most of them chose private universities for different reasons, one of them being their perceived higher status.…”

Section: The Casementioning

confidence: 99%

The relational costs of crossing class lines

Álvarez-Rivadulla

Camelo

Vargas-Serani³

et al. 2023

British Journal of Sociology

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How do low socioeconomic status students navigate cross-class interactions in extremely unequal contexts? Previous research has described the high costs of college integration for underprivileged students, which in turn, negatively impact academic performance and general wellbeing. These studies tend to concentrate on cultural capital costs, such as catching up with assumed middle-class or elite capital and dealing with two worlds. Less has been said about social capital costs, the costs of making friends, especially more privileged friends. Through 61 in-depth interviews with various types of students as part of a broader ethnographic fieldwork, this article analyses the experiences of low-income scholarship holders in an elite institution in a very unequal society, Colombia. Rather than isolating themselves or resorting to safe homophilic relations, they faced their new elite environment engaging with the hidden relational cost of making friends with more affluent students.In so doing, they had to overcome fears and experiences of discrimination and micro-aggressions, as well as cultural and economic capital barriers, and employed either camouflaging or disclosure strategies, sometimes becoming culturally and socially omnivorous. Symbolic belonging to the institution and the acquisition of middle-class cultural capital were among the benefits that made overcoming the costs worthy.Our results shed light on what institutions can do to reduce the costs for underprivileged students and, theoretically,

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College integration and social class

et al. 2022

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What is the impact of social class on college integration? Higher education institutions are becoming more diverse, yet the integration of underprivileged students remains a challenge. Using a social network approach, we analyze the general integration of low socioeconomic status (SES) students, as well as how segregated by class these friends are. The object of analysis is the extreme case of an elite university that, based on a government loan program (Ser Pilo Paga), opened its doors to many low-SES students in a very unequal country, Colombia. Using a mixed methods perspective, including a survey, 61 in depth interviews, and ethnographic observation, we analyze friendship networks and their meanings, barriers, and facilitators. Contrary to the literature, we find that low-SES students had, on average, the same number of connections and were no more isolated than students from upper social classes. Also, low-SES students’ networks were not more segregated, even if relations with the upper classes were less likely and required more relational work than with middle or lower class friends. This high level of social integration stemmed from the intense relational work that low-SES students engage in, so as to fit in. Middle class friends act as a catalyst that can enable cross-class friendships.

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An Unintended Effect of Financing the University Education of the Most Brilliant and Poorest Colombian Students: The Case of the Intervention of the Ser Pilo Paga Program

Cited by 4 publications

References 25 publications

The evolving legitimacy of external quality assurance in Colombian higher education

The evolving legitimacy of external quality assurance in Colombian higher education

The relational costs of crossing class lines

College integration and social class

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