Political shaping in university students in Ecuador: the cases of USFQ and UCE

Abstract

This paper approaches how Ecuadorian academy shapes the political perspectives of undergraduate students, considering two specific realities: public universities and private universities. For this, I analyzed undergraduate students’ experiences —each of them did belong to majors related to humanities and social sciences— of two Ecuadorian universities: Universidad Central del Ecuador (UCE), as representant of public-funding institutions, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), as representant of private universities. I used qualitative methods, including a total of twelve interviews and one focal group. From these testimonies, on the one hand, I found evidence of a vast support of leftist views at UCE. On the other hand, I concluded that USFQ’s environment emphasized in the support of liberal —in its classical approach— values. However, I remark that there is huge political diversity in both universities, as well as many ideological tinges that shape political perspectives, including several factors such as socioeconomical conditions or the college of a student.