Análisis del estado actual de las políticas en educación superior en Colombia

Abstract

This paper presents the public policies on higher education in Colombia and considers whether they have or have not fostered the role and actions of its main actors, that is to say, of the teacher, the student and the educational institutions, as well as of the public policies in themselves, all of which constitute the theoretical basis of the development of education towards high standards. This paper also asks whether the legal framework which has been defining itself since 1992, when the current law 30 on high education was issued and the educational environment, within which the first three previously mentioned “categorical imperatives” must learn to perform, are both responding to the demands of the present local, national, international and globalized contexts. Finally, this study raises the question of how fundamental issues related to coverage, quality, relevance, research, innovation, financing and internationalization are articulated to programs enunciated by a national plan, a plan that is recognized for being well thought about, consciously designed, democratically and fully discussed, responsive to the exacting contexts of the Present and especially constructively confluencial among officials and the needs of all Colombian citizens, needs which higher education is known to be able to help to attend now and in the future. For this reason, by tracing the frontiers of the these particular policies, by consulting various academic and nonacademic references on the crucial issue of high education in Colombia and by recognizing the trends and challenges of this society, this research project hopes to provide, especially now when a large scale debate on the educational reform is taking place in the country, analytical elements that allow to take into account the pedagogical State’ doctrine, the real circumstances and the basic principles in the learning and teaching relationship between autonomous students and a pedagogues, who know the potential of their role as leaders.