Higher Education, Social Inequalities, and Youth in Paraguay: Challenges for Access, Retention, and Equity

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between youth, socioeconomic inequalities, and access to higher education in Paraguay within the context of the university massification process observed in Latin America over recent decades. From a theoretical perspective, it revisits the debates on enrollment expansion, institutional stratification, and meritocracy in higher education, highlighting how the widening of access does not necessarily translate into greater social mobility when structural inequalities that shape educational trajectories persist. The study is based on the analysis of secondary data drawn primarily from the 2024 Permanent Household Survey (EPH) conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), complemented by regulatory and budgetary documentation related to higher education financing. Using these data, the article examines indicators associated with educational attendance, youth poverty, NEET status, labor informality, and the financing of the higher education system. The results reveal the persistence of significant territorial and socioeconomic disparities affecting young people's access to and retention in higher education, particularly in rural areas and in contexts of poverty. In addition, public funding for higher education is found to remain below the legal minimum established by national legislation. Taken together, the findings highlight the need to strengthen public policies aimed at ensuring the material and institutional conditions required to transform the expansion of access into sustainable and socially inclusive educational trajectories.