How would you feel if in your department the access to higher education is identified as a

community issue?
For a start, is well known around Colombia that access to higher education is a fundamental
right possessed by everyone only for being citizens. However, this right is violated repeatedly
because of several factors that go from lack of organization of the educational centers to
mismanagement of public resources, making impossible for a large number of students to
begin their studies in a university. Nevertheless, these factors change depending on the zone
studied. This phenomenon doesn’t occur in departments of Caribbean Coast in the same way
it occurs in the interior of the country. The next essay will focus on some of the most
important factors that make this problem possible and how it is lived both in Barranquilla
and Bogotá, two districts geographically far.
In first place, in the country, only 4 out of 10 students who finish high school manage to
access higher education. This emphasizes the low coverage of higher education institutions
nationwide. Regarding the case of the cities of Barranquilla and Bogotá, there is a very
different picture. In the case of the city of Barranquilla, it has stood out nationally as the city
that leads the country in the access of young people to higher education immediately. This is
indicated by the figures that show that in Barranquilla, an average 53.3% of the young people
who graduated from public and private institutions managed to enter higher education
directly. The previous figures place the city 10 percentage points above the national average,
surpassing Bogotá, Medellin, Cali and Bucaramanga. In contrast to the situation in
Barranquilla, Bogotá is characterized by a proportion close to 40% entering higher education
in the immediately following semester. In other words, the immediate absorption rate is 40%.
However, this rate is at least 15 percentage points lower for young people who graduate from
middle school and come from stratum one and two of the population. These figures lead us
to conclude that policies and programs are needed to encourage easy access to education.
In second place, an important factor is the number of public institutions compared with the
number of private institutions. In the case of Barranquilla, there are only 3 public universities
rather than the 6 private universities and the 16 private corporations and institutes. This
similarly occurs in Bogotá, where there are only 7 public universities in contrast to the 100
private universities in there. The public universities exist for students to access to higher
education regardless of their socioeconomic condition. However, is possible to see more
private universities than public ones. That is a signal about the lack of attention from the
government to fulfill the educational right in the country. In addition, from this lack of
attention derives the several problems lived in public universities: poor infrastructure, lack
of inputs, teacher’s strikes, etcetera. On the other hand, thanks to the sustainment of private
universities from self-resources, these offer better opportunities and a quality education. All
of this situation supposes and issue for low social stratum students because they can’t afford
the high costs of a private education, being forced to make expensive loans or, in the worst
cases, not being able to access to higher education.
Last but not least, another important and growing factor in the education sector is the high
student dropout rate. According to the ministry of national education, the annual university
dropout rate is 8.02 %, while technical and technological courses are even higher, reaching
13,39 %. Also, the figures show that the educational sector of technological careers is the
most affected, reaching a dropout rate of 34,9% compared to 2,9% of undergraduate courses.
Universities, both public and private, face challenges related to a drop in enrollment of new
undergraduate students in private universities, low coverage and high dropout rates. The
factors associated with this drop in enrollment in private universities are high tuition costs,
demographic changes, high underemployment (short and poorly paid jobs), low pay,
misinformation and lack of vocational guidance. Finally, it is evident that more efficient
supply and integration of technical and technological careers must be applied to universities.
As a conclusion, is clear how the higher education is unbalanced in the country. Meanwhile
in private offer the opportunities and tools students count on, just as its cost, are greater, in
the public sphere, the ‘free’ education it offered ends up being expensive because of the low
quality. As it was said before, education is a fundamental right that must be guaranteed by
the state. It is inadmissible and frightening how in two cities located in different regions of
Colombia the 50% of students are not able to access to higher education. If this gap continues
Colombia will be stuck. Therefore, this is an emergency call for government to start taking
actions (investing resources and giving financial aids) for education don’t become in a
relentless business but it starts to manifest as the right it is.

REFERENCES
https://pensarlaciudad.udistrital.edu.co/miradas-de-ciudad/para-cerrar-la-brecha-en-
educacion-superior-en-bogota-y-las-lecciones-de-ser-pilo
https://urosario.edu.co/periodico-nova-et-vetera/nuestra-u/menos-de-la-mitad-de-los-
bachilleres-en-colombia-logra-acceder-de-inmediato-la-educacion
https://lavibrante.com/barranquilla-lidera-el-acceso-inmediato-de-jovenes-a-la-educacion-
superior-en-el-pais/#:~:text=Cali%20y%20Once%E2%80%A6-
,Barranquilla%20lidera%20el%20acceso%20inmediato%20de%20j%C3%B3venes%20a%
20la%20educaci%C3%B3n,es%20del%2041%2C08%25
https://www.eltiempo.com/vida/educacion/tristes-estadisticas-de-desercion-universitaria-
mitad-de-estudiantes-no-se-gradua-789914
https://dondestudiar.org/universidades/barranquilla/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Universidades_de_Bogotá