Access to Ecuadorian higher education What career do students choose?: Social repercussions of a public policy

Abstract

Since the new Constitution of 2008, Ecuador has made many changes in higher education, with public policies to benefit young people who complete their secondary education, in accordance with the right to education conceived as a common good for all. The objective of this analysis is the public policy that has not yielded the expected results and has left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of young people and the homes to which they belong, as they have placed their hopes for better living conditions thanks to the academic expectations that exist in the higher education system, which are not channeled effectively, generating social repercussions such as university dropouts and the impossibility of appropriate job insertion, which is addressed in this article, with a description of what is currently happening. An analysis has been made of how this public policy for access to higher education works, which lacks adequate support as part of the substantive functions of the higher education system, made up of higher education institutions with internal policies that apply university autonomy. Choosing the career of your dreams has become the greatest challenge for young people in Ecuadorian society.

Keywords: public policy, higher education, law, common good.