Diana Vidal and Oscar Veiman Mejia
THE COUNTRY I Manizales
Enrollment in Higher Education Institutions in Caldas had a tendency to stabilize at 50 thousand students, since the second semester of 2017. It is a considerable figure, thanks to its traditional and wide range of programs. However, the covid pandemic dealt a blow from which it is just beginning to recover.
In the second semester of 2017, 50 thousand 154 enrolled were reached; in the second of 2018 to 50 thousand 462, and in the second of 2019 to 50 thousand 54. For the second of 2020, in the midst of a health emergency, the reduction was notorious: 38 thousand 353.
These and other data were published by the Ministry of Education (MEN) in the Report on Historical Enrollment in Higher Education in Colombia, from 2016 to 2021.
Strategies
Last year, little by little, an improvement was shown in the universities of Caldas. In the second semester there were 45 thousand 183.
For the national government, the figures for the coronavirus could have been worse. “The effect of the pandemic on higher education was less than expected at the beginning of the emergency. As the 2020 data had already shown, in the two academic semesters of 2021 there was a significant growth in the number of students enrolled in most of the public Higher Education Institutions of the country.
He attributes this minor impact to the effectiveness of measures such as the Solidarity Fund for Education, the Generation E program and the Free Tuition Policy for students with greater vulnerability conditions.
from a public
Ángela García, Head of Planning at the University of Caldas
The report presented by the Ministry of Education in relation to higher education enrollment in recent years does not generate surprises. However, it has useful information regarding the behavior of recent years in higher education programs.
In the first place, measuring the percentage of increase in enrollments in 2021 in relation to 2020 makes a positive value predictable, since the pandemic situation in 2020 generated a crisis in higher education, situations of desertion and situations of non-enrollment in the second semester of 2020. That is why this comparison of 2021 with 2020 shows or is foreseeable taking into account this critical situation in 2020. The report mentions something that is very true and that is that the impact of the pandemic on higher education It was less than expected.
When the pandemic began, the sector predicted a dropout rate and a 25% decrease in enrollment, and this was not the case, even in many universities there was a rebound in 2021 and if we do the analysis with 2022 we can see a new rebound.
The negative forecasts did not occur as such due to the enormous effort made not only by the national government, but also by each higher education institution to adapt to the pandemic situation. The Ministry sped up its programs and generated resources to provide tuition relief and benefits to our public students, and apart from that, the institutions made enormous efforts to give our students data plans, computers, and any number of tools, not only technological, but from the psychosocial point of view to avoid a massive desertion of the system and to be able to have continuity in the provision of the higher education service.
In 2021, a slight rebound in enrollment is generated. The Ministry drew up guidelines to have a face-to-face in higher education institutions with alternation, first it began by activating the practice laboratories, then the institutional practices and then guidelines to have a face-to-face in the alternation. These measures allowed for this 2021, despite still being in the health crisis, to have a rebound in enrollment, which obviously if we had the figures for 2022, the rebound for this year would be significant, at least in our university we have perceived it this way, we had a situation very similar to the one described at the country level, where the dropout was not as considerable as it was envisioned and indeed in 2021 enrollment begins to be activated again and in 2022 it has been seen as such this behavior.
In the report an analysis is made in relation to the progressive decrease in enrollment in private universities, this is evidenced and as the report describes it, by demographic situations, type of programs, changes in trends in higher education However, let’s say that the official sector has continued to be strengthened thanks to these measures that have been implemented to advance free of charge, to advance towards zero enrollment, and which we hope the next government will pick up and continue with.
What is not surprising is the increase in enrollment in virtual programs. One of the great lessons that the pandemic leaves for higher education is the possibility of using ict pedagogical tools and mediations to be able to interact with students and thus have a greater reach and coverage of the programs.
In the case of Caldas, the behavior is similar, enrollment in the department of higher education according to the Ministry report amounts to an average of 50 thousand students, a little less the first semesters, in 2020-II a considerable reduction is seen , enrollment drops to 38,353 students, of course, due to the effects of the pandemic and let’s remember that Caldas had cancellation this semester, so there were 9 thousand fewer students contributing to these statistics. However, in 2021-II it rises to 45 thousand 183, although it does not reach the same figures as before the pandemic, the sector’s enrollment does recover in this period and we hope that from this year 2022, the dynamism of education superior is strengthened, consolidated and the new government continues to support the institutions.
from a private
Yamilhet Andrade Arango, Vice President General of the University of Manizales
When comparing the dynamics of higher education enrollment in the last five years, compared to the previous period (2010-2015), it is confirmed that the city has experienced a cycle of stagnation in the sector, with an average (median) semester of 48,978 enrollments, which represents growth rates close to 0.1% per academic period, compared to 7.5% annually in 2010-2015, which allowed the expansion of the securities sector from 30,698 enrollments in 2010 to 43,976 enrollments in 2015.
2016 was the last year of significant growth, to enter a slightly downward path, with an evident greater impact in 2020, especially in the second academic period of that year where the semester contraction was greater than -20%, with higher figures in men (-22.6% men versus -18.5% women) and in the official sector (-30.8% official versus -4.9% private), possibly associated with the cancellation of a semester at the undergraduate level in a of the public universities of the city.
2021 marks a year of recovery in enrollment, annually it grew an average of 3%, compared to the contraction of -3.9% in 2020, which in the semester reading meant a rate of 24.7% in the first semester 2021 , giving a statistical rebound in the face of the strong decrease in the second half of 2020, but again entering negative figures of -5.5% for the second half, possibly the normalization effect of the trend that the sector had in the city since 2016, combined with unfavorable macroeconomic variables, but taking into account that the enrollment values in the last year would be below the figures for the same period, that is, in recovery compared to 2020, but below 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The foregoing means that the sector in the city has not recovered the pre-pandemic figures, and would be at values above 2015 but below 2016.
The above dynamic is associated with the national and local macroeconomic situation. Starting in 2016, the Colombian economy entered a gradual phase of economic slowdown, which slowed down the pace of job creation, with its inertial effect on the country’s regions.
The foregoing possibly explains the difference in growth in the sector between 2010-2015 and 2016-2021, responding procyclically but belatedly, as a consequence of the results of the labor market and, in this way, household income, a determining variable. for higher education, especially for the private sector. Along the same lines, between 2020 and 2021, in addition to the destruction of wealth generated by the pandemic and its social isolation measures, households have suffered an additional blow from the increase in prices.
In 2021, national inflation was 5.62%, but 6.85% for the poor and vulnerable class. For Manizales, inflation closed above the national figure (5.98%), with an aggravating circumstance that the increase in the CPI in the education division was 10.09%, compared to 2.76% in the same division in the country, being the tenth city with the highest variation among the 23 cities in education.
Faced with the latter, it should be made clear that the higher price pressures on consumers in education goods and services is also a reflection of what happens in terms of operating and functioning costs.
Thus, for the first semester of this year 2022, compared to the same semester of 2021, the Higher Education Cost Index (ICES) presented an annual variation of 7.74%, a result 5.51 percentage points higher than the one registered in the first semester of the previous year (2.23%).
They come and go
-Sara Cifuentes, a law student from the University of Caldas and from Armenia, recounts her reasons for enrolling in Manizales:
“I was between three cities: Armenia, Cali and Manizales, but Law is a career that is not in many public universities, for example it was not in the U. del Valle, they just opened it, and in private universities it is very expensive. After I completed Icfes, I applied to Javeriana for a scholarship. I went to the U., but I didn’t win the scholarship because there was only one person per program. I couldn’t afford to pay $7 million. So I was left with two options, Armenia or Manizales: In Armenia there was the U. Gran Colombia, which I think is very good, and in Manizales, the U. de Caldas. Finally, I chose the Caldas because it is a public one that seems to me to have a higher academic level.
For me it was easier because my dad and aunt live here, so they took me in, but for many students who have to come alone and rent rooms, college has been an excellent experience.”
_Diego Alejandro Osorio Grisales, law student at the University of Caldas.
My process in the pandemic was very curious. We left for the farm, my parents, my sister, my niece and I before the pandemic because my parents planned to go live there, and the pandemic caught up with us. We stayed there for a couple of months and when we started university I went to the town, which is Marquetalia. When we started classes I canceled subjects and left one because I was in a process of reconciliation with myself, of finding myself, of spending time with my family and rethinking many things. In May 2021, when the restrictions were going to be lifted, we returned to Manizales, my parents took away their support. There, yes, due to work issues, I continued to see only one subject, I did not take up all the subjects. The pandemic affected me because I had to take care of myself, my sister and my niece. My parents returned to Manizales, now I live with them and they are helping me to finish university with everything”.
For years
Colombia
2016 49.485 2.394.434
2017 50.157 2.446.314
2018 51.270 2.440.367
2019 50.580 2.396.250
2020 49.610 2.355.603
2021 46.471 2.448.271
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