Barriers to access and permanence at the university: a point of view

Abstract

Currently, adolescents need to access higher degree education if they want to have a successful professional career. Unfortunately, even if they want, some of them cannot easily access or pursue it. Different reasons exist regarding this phenomenon such as financial constraints, cultural issues, or lack of available positions at public and/or state universities. This issue is not exclusive of developing countries, and each country has different nuances of the problem. In the United States, one-third of the population is below the poverty line, but just 6% of medical students come from these families. (1) In Latin America the coverage, meaning the rate of college enrollment, passed from 7% in 1970 to 41% (21 millions of students) in 2010. These rates mean that more than 30 years was necessary to achieve a coverage around 50%. (2) Unfortunately, this issue is far from being solved. The most affected populations are the poor given that governments have been incapable of closing the socioeconomic gap that let many adolescents without the opportunity to access higher degree education and succeed in a career. Furthermore, the actual situation of social distancing and financial crisis due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, may lead to an increase in the socioeconomic gap, considering that only few would bel able to afford higher degree education in colleges and universities. (2) Thus, it is necessary to keep studying the situation in different countries from a variety of angles, and also recognizing the different barriers to access higher degree education, and pursuing a professional and academic career. In this editorial, barriers are defined as any obstacle that prevents the population from access undergraduate studies. Data included in this study cover the rate of enrollment at higher education only. ❚ THE CURRENT SITUATION IN AMERICA AND EUROPELatin America improved access to higher education at universities by using different strategies such as funding for public universities, scholarships for students, and educational loans. (2) Ecuador, after had been the country with the least cover and educational quality, (2) adopted these strategies to rose the access to university by offering 55.56% and the gross and net rate of enrollment to 31.86% and 21.23%, respectively. Likewise, Argentina is currently known for its high quality system and unrestricted free access to education for Argentinian nationals. (3) In contrast, however, countries as Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil although offer free education, the access to it is restricted due to How to cite this article: Torres-Patiño IC, Rojas-Hernandez CM, García-Perdomo HA. Barriers to access and permanence at the university: a point of view. einstein (São Paulo). 2021;19:eED6447.