Enrollment and university changes in Ecuador: equity, development and meritocracy

Abstract

The article describes the university enrollment policy recently implemented in Ecuador which targets "vulnerable" sectors in the transformation processes that universities face as a result of the Organic Law on Higher Education. This qualitative study integrates both government and academic participants perspectives in the current public policy situation, and reveals how democratizing measures create dilemmas and contradictions when implementing actions among the inclusive and intercultural aspects, as well as the professionalizing and homogenizing educational tendencies which characterize the neoliberal perspective.