PUCP researchers participate in book on inclusion in higher education in Peru and Brazil

The book Higher education and inclusion policies. Experiences from Brazil and Peru is an online publication in which you can learn about the results of important policies of inclusion in higher education in both countries.

The document, available free of charge at spanish and in Portuguese, is a joint work between the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas (PUC-Campinas)the Laboratorio de Estudios de Educación Superior (LEES), of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp)and the CISE PUCP with the common objective of contributing to the dissemination of educational research in the Latin American region.

"It is important that this research reaches specialists and managers in higher education, scholarships and inclusion policies. The initiative for this book came about in 2018, at a CISE seminar, where we met several PUCP researchers who were developing studies on the outcomes of scholarship programmes from multidisciplinary perspectives. The text includes essays by researchers from two important Brazilian universities who analyse this same topic in their country," says Dr Luis Sime, director of CISE PUCP, who coordinated the edition together with professors André Pires (PUC-Campiñas) and Helena Sampaio (Unicamp).

Peruvian perspective

In the book, the Peruvian perspective is present through four essays by PUCP professors on state scholarship programmes. Each of the works is approached from different disciplines.

Dr Patricia Ames (Social Sciences, Ages of Life and Education Research Group) focuses on the experience of indigenous students in Beca 18. "The programme benefits the most talented indigenous students in each community at high-cost private universities that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Although it is a great opportunity, we see some contradictions in the implementation of Beca 18. Students feel that the programme does not keep its commitments and sometimes exerts excessive control. Universities, for their part, are ill-prepared to adapt to the diversity of students entering their classrooms," says Ames.

Dr Yolanda Rodríguez (Communications) analyses the student trajectories of Beca18. "The analysis carried out shows the need to observe and address the relationship between diversity - social, cultural and ethnic - and inclusion in university spaces. Far from any paternalistic attitude, whose correlate is a deficient vision of scholarship holders, the educational trajectories of scholarship students show aspirations for effective recognition as citizens and their right to education. Any form of differentiation or segmentation within the university can result in forms of segregation or discrimination," says Rodríguez.

Liza Cabrera (Education) presented a study on the students of the Vocación Maestro Scholarship: "The study suggests possible actions for improvement in the strategies and devices for the integral attention of the scholarship holders, who express that it would be necessary to increase the economic aid from Pronabec to acquire a laptop computer to facilitate their academic work. They value the support of the professors; for this reason, they suggest continuing with a system of permanent accompaniment. On the other hand, the faculties involved in their training need to continue working to compensate for deficiencies in various aspects of their schooling.

Finally, Iris Jave (IDEHPUCP, Memory and Democracy Research Group of the PUCP) analyses the Repared Scholarship programme. This finances technical training for people who have been victims of the political violence that occurred between 1980 and 2000.

Experiences from Brazil

"In Peru, educational inclusion policies are no more than 15 years old," says Dr. Sime. "That is why it is useful to look at the experience and results obtained by our neighbouring country, which is several decades ahead of us in these initiatives," adds the director of CISE PUCP.

The editing work with PUC Campiñas and Unicamp has been very thorough. "Our texts went through a double-blind study in which the authors do not know who is evaluating them and vice versa. This method allows the texts to be evaluated in an impartial and rigorous way," said Sime, who believes that this book will allow us to understand the challenges faced by educational inclusion systems in our country.

"Young scholarship holders sometimes find it difficult to integrate into university life. Sometimes their families face situations of extreme poverty that prevent the student from concentrating on their studies. Some of them send home the money they receive from Pronabec to support themselves. There is a lot of complexity in these programmes, which need to adjust their strategies to be more effective in supporting students," said the PUCP professor and editor of this publication.