Higher Education for Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon Region: Balance and Challenges

Abstract

In the last decades, an important discussion has been developed in Latin America about the access of indigenous students to higher-education institutions and about the creation of intercultural universities. This article specifically revises the different types of experiences of higher-education offered to the indigenous youth of the Peruvian Amazon region, and it builds on information gathered throughout the last decade of following and studying these experiences. The article begins with a discussion of the programs for bilingual teachers, which has been the prioritized form of access to higher education offered to the indigenous peoples. Then it analyzes different cases of affirmative action programs promoted by the Peruvian State and Peruvian universities, such as quotas and special scholarship programs. Finally, it presents the case of the intercultural universities, most of which have been created only a few years ago, and it discusses their real possibilities of becoming an alternative form of engaging with intercultural education.