Accompaniment program for university students from vulnerable groups at the Escuela Politécnica Nacional

Abstract

Since 2014, the “Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT),” (the National Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation) implemented an affirmative action policy called “Política de Cuotas” (Quota Policy), in order to fulfill the “Ley Orgánica de Educación Superior” (Organic Law of Higher Education), which states that “Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES)” (Institutions of Higher Education) must implement mandatory policies in favor of historically discriminated and vulnerable groups. Students from these groups, who are characterized by low academic performance, have high rates of academic loss and dropout, which makes this policy inefficient, generating socioeconomic losses to the State, the Institutions, and the population. Because of this, the “Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN)”, through the “Departamento de Formación Básica (DFB)”, implemented a program of academic accompaniment for these students who belong to vulnerable groups, improving their academic performance index, however this students presented high dropout rate due to the economic problems, lack of time form students, and insufficient pedagogical training of the tutors.