The Graduate Programs in Sustainable International Development The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Brandeis University

Higher Education in a Rural Bolivian Indigenous Community: The Effects of a Context-Specific Education Model on

Relieving Poverty, Promoting Community Development, and

Improving Sustainable Livelihoods

Submitted by

Rachel R. Satterlee

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts Degree in

Sustainable International Development

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... 4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 5

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................... 8

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS & TERMS ............................................................................................... 9

1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 10

1.1 Case Study: The Development Problem ............................................................................. 10

1.2 Case Study: The Scope ........................................................................................................ 11

1.3 Fieldwork Practicum ........................................................................................................... 12

2. BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT ....................................................................... 13

2.1 Education in Bolivia ............................................................................................................ 14

2.2 Indigenous Education in Bolivia ......................................................................................... 14

2.3 Higher Education in Bolivia ................................................................................................ 16

2.4 Indigenous-Specific Higher Education in Bolivia............................................................... 17

2.5 Poverty and the Measurement of Poverty in Bolivia .......................................................... 19

2.6 Employment and Income in Bolivia .................................................................................... 20

3. METHODS ................................................................................................................................. 21

3.1 The Survey .......................................................................................................................... 21

3.2 The Literature Review & Desk Studies ............................................................................... 22

3.3 Professional Work ............................................................................................................... 22

3.4 Timeline of Case Study ....................................................................................................... 22

3.5 Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 23

4. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................................................. 23

4.1 Why are rural and indigenous populations poorer in Bolivia? ............................................ 23

4.2 Why are rural and indigenous populations less educated in Bolivia? ................................. 23

4.3 Are specialized universities and degrees the solution to narrowing this gap? .................... 28

5. DISCUSSION AND DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 30

5.1 Current Situation of Supply & Demand for Higher Education in Rural Areas ................... 30

5.2 Current Existing Responses to Demand for Higher Education in Rural Areas................... 31

5.3 UAC-CP Graduate Survey of 2012-2013 ............................................................................ 31

5.4 Discussion Questions .......................................................................................................... 32

5.5 Question 1: Are the degrees obtained by UAC-CP graduates effective in terms of furthering UAC-CP’s mission to train students to serve rural communities? ................ 33

5.6 Question 2: Do contextual, indigenous-oriented postsecondary institutions improve the odds that rural indigenous populations can escape poverty? ......................................... 37

6. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ........................................................................................... 45

6.1 Future Graduate Surveys ..................................................................................................... 45

6.2 Future Cooperation between the UAC-CP, Graduates, and the Community ...................... 45

6.3 Increased Practical Learning & Level Tuition Rates .......................................................... 46

6.4 Continued Data Analysis & Implications ............................................................................ 47

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 48

APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................. 53

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Survey…………………………………………..………….....32

Table 2: Parental Educational “Deprivation” by Area…………………………………………...41

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Case Study & Practicum Location: Bolivia, South America ....................................... 11

Figure 2: Childhood Provinces of Graduates (Location of Childhood Home) ............................. 61

Figure 3: Current Provinces of Graduates (Location of Employment) ......................................... 61

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ABSTRACT

Bolivia is the poorest yet the most ethnically diverse country in Latin America, with 51.3% of its population living in poverty and 52% of the total population that identifies with an indigenous ethnicity (World, 2011; INE, 2009a). The purpose of this case study is to look at higher education in the rural areas of Bolivia and its role in encouraging sustainable development and poverty alleviation through contextualized and accessible degree programs in communities where there exist higher rates of poverty and higher numbers of people who identify with an indigenous group. The Unidad Academica Campesina - Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) is a rural university that is accomplishing this mission, as proven by results from a survey of graduates conducted in 2012-2013. Although there are still challenges for UAC-CP graduates and shortcomings within the UAC-CP system, the university is providing job opportunities, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development in an area where it otherwise would not exist.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, with 51.3% of its population living below the national poverty line in 2009 (World, 2011). A 2009 statistics report from Bolivia’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicates that Bolivia has richness in cultural and ethnic diversity; 52% of the total population and 69% of the rural population identify with at least one of the 38 recognized indigenous ethnicities that exist in Bolivia, which include Quechua, Aymará, Guaraní, Mosetén, and Chiquitano (INE, 2009a). Although overall poverty rates have declined slightly in the past few years, many inequities still exist between indigenous and non-indigenous populations as well as rural and urban populations. In 2009, 43% of the urban population was living below the poverty line while 66% of the rural population was living in poverty (INE, 2009b). In the last half century, many efforts have been made to decrease poverty rates, secure human rights, and increase education access for indigenous peoples in Bolivia. However, the implementation of the new reform is taking time and there continues to be inequities between those from indigenous or African descent and those from Spanish or foreign descent. There are significant differences in levels of education, health, living standards, consumption, and income. However, the one indicator in this group which could be argued to provide a source for raising the quality of the other indicators is education, especially higher education. Although there are many universities in Bolivia, the majority are expensive, urban, private universities that are inaccessible to most of the rural population and do not offer training in areas relevant to rural communities. In recent years, there have been a few universities inaugurated in the rural areas of Bolivia, many of which cater to indigenous populations by providing affordable, rural livelihoods-based degrees.

The Unidad Académica Campesina - Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) is an excellent case study of rural universities in Bolivia because it is located in the rural Nor Yungas province of Bolivia and because it hosts five degree programs related to rural livelihoods: agronomy, education, nursing, rural tourism, and veterinary science. It was founded in 1993 after the community decided that higher education could help alleviate the lack of job opportunities for youth and lessen the prevalence of poverty in the Nor Yungas region. Promoting a respect for both human life and the environment, the UAC-CP prepares its students to serve the poor and their communities through a curriculum of classroom studies as well as practical application of their studies through hands-on learning via community extension work. Inequities between rural and urban populations as well as between indigenous and non-indigenous populations are prevalent throughout the entire Bolivian education system. As of 2004, secondary school completion rates in urban areas were at 65% for men and 50% for women, whereas rural rates were extremely low at 20% for men and 10% for women (Ministerio, 2004). In addition, a survey of youth ages 15 years and older showed that, on average, non-indigenous youth had 9.6 years of schooling while indigenous youth only had 5.9 years (World, 2005). Because of low secondary graduation rates and because of limited access to higher education, 64% of secondary-aged students in Bolivia are not continuing on to university (INE, 2011a; INE, 2011b). Although the number of enrolled secondary students who advance to university is high (78%, nationally), this is overshadowed by the fact that university

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graduation rates are very low (INE, 2011a). In 1990, university graduation rates were at 2.4% and by 2009 they had risen to 5.0% (Organización, 1997; INE, 2011b). In order to improve university graduation rates and in order to provide access to higher education for rural indigenous populations, five rural universities based on the UAC model were created in the 1980s and 1990s, and three specifically indigenous UNIBOL (Indigenous University of Bolivia) institutions were created in 2008 by President Morales (Goddard, 2010). This case study drew information primarily from a literature review and from the data and insight that I collected through revising and implementing a survey of UAC-CP graduates, part of my responsibilities during my 6-month work practicum at the UAC-CP. The 2012-2013 UAC-CP graduate survey was revised version of a graduate survey that was originally created in 2010 by University of Minnesota public policy masters student Aara Johnson. The survey collected responses from 180 alumni of the UAC-CP, consisted of 88 questions, and collected detailed information on demographics, employment, family history/origin, cultural practices, language use, community involvement, and feedback on the UAC-CP experience. Following the survey, graduates were asked informal interview questions about job satisfaction, degree satisfaction, and their experience at the UAC-CP. There are debates as to whether education that is specifically intercultural or contextualized to the individual cultural realities of the students is harmful to absorption of conventional learning material. It is inconclusive whether conventional schooling and indigenous or traditional knowledge are positively, negatively, or neutrally associated. In the past, the Ministry of Education has encouraged rural students to attend university in the urban areas and to study in programs that are unrelated to the needs of the rural area, prospects which are both unappealing and inaccessible to most rural students. It is clear that there needs to be an alternative option for students from the rural area who wish to become professionals and escape poverty, but still wish to serve the rural area after graduation. Contextualized, rural universities provide degrees that are relevant to the rural areas in a manner that is accessible and affordable for rural students, but there still exist problems such as teacher quality and limited degree options. Graduates from the UAC-CP have the unique ability to combine the conventional and traditional skills that they gain during their degree programs with their knowledge of the rural culture in order to support livelihoods through professional consultation. They have begun to provide trained leadership within small towns that previously did not have this type of leadership. The success of rural universities like the UAC-CP can often be seen in the accomplishments of their graduates, depicted in high employment rates as well as improvements in income measurements and multidimensional measurements of poverty between UAC-CP graduates and their parents. Although the 2012-2013 UAC-CP graduate survey is not scientifically representative of the entire graduate population because of the snowball and purposive sampling methods used, it is helpful in gaining a rough representation of the population. The first question that the survey data can answer as related to the development problem is: Are the degrees obtained by UAC-CP graduates effective in terms of furthering UAC-CP’s mission to train students to serve rural communities? Through the survey questions that addressed rural and urban locations and movement from childhood to present, rate of employment within the

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field of degree, rate of employment that supports the rural area, job satisfaction, relation of graduates jobs’ to their parents’ livelihoods, and source of inspiration to attend university, it can be deduced that UAC-CP graduates are in fact effectively and innovatively serving the rural areas. The second question that the survey data can answer as related to the development problem is: Do contextual, indigenous-oriented postsecondary institutions improve the odds that rural indigenous populations can escape poverty? By looking at the answers to the survey questions that addressed indigenous affiliation, indigenous languages spoken, income measures of graduates and their parents, educational levels of graduates and their parents, and changes in measures of multidimensional poverty between graduates’ childhood household and their current household, it can be seen that the majority of UAC-CP graduates identify as indigenous, are serving the rural indigenous populations, and have significantly reduced their poverty rates compared to their parents’ generation. There are also aspects of graduates’ realities which could not be captured by these measures, and personal stories from informal interviews helped provide insight into the statistics. For example, some graduates are employed full time but are not employed in their field, and other graduates do not have the direct contact with the rural community that they had hoped when they obtained their degree. The survey data seem to confirm that the UAC-CP is preparing students who are serving the rural area and alleviating poverty, but there is room for improvement in order for the UAC-CP to be completely sustainable. Many graduates reported that the quality of programming and administration seems to have gone down since they finished their degrees, that there are many obstacles to completing the thesis portion of the degree program, and that the mission of the university to serve the neediest populations is not as strong as it used to be. There have been suggestions that the UAC-CP should expand the number of degree programs as well as develop specific specializations or certificate programs. These suggestions can be taken into consideration, but since funding is limited, it is currently unlikely that these types of changes would not threaten the quality of the existing programs. Some ways in which the UAC-CP can improve their social, economic, and environmental sustainability include further development of formal relations and cooperatives between the university, the surrounding community, and the graduates. Funding constraints continue to prevent programmatic improvements that graduates suggested, such as plentiful off-campus practical learning and level tuition rates. However, the UAC-CP continues to provide young people in rural areas with opportunities to become professionals, to serve the rural area, to support poverty alleviation, and to support sustainable livelihoods with both technical and indigenous knowledge.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research and work to complete this paper would not have been possible without the support and teamwork of many incredible people. I would like to thank Sarah Mechtenberg, my field supervisor in Bolivia and the Carmen Pampa Fund’s (CPF) director of advancement, for her wisdom and guidance during the survey process, her hospitality, her constructive criticism, her willingness to share her knowledge of the UAC-CP, and her faith in my ability to accomplish the work necessary. I would also like to thank Dr. Heath Prince, my academic advisor, for his positivity, support, encouragement, suggestions, and insight throughout my practicum and the paper-writing process. In addition, I would like to thank the many alumni of the UAC-CP who were so welcoming, patient, and helpful during the time when I was implementing the graduate survey.

I would like to acknowledge Aara Johnson for laying the groundwork in designing survey and for her insight before my practicum began; Diego Miranda, the UAC-CP IT manager, for his patience with my requests and suggestions and for working long hours with me to improve and update the UAC database system; Manuela Urbina, the UAC-CP academic secretary, for her support, expertise, extensive knowledge of all graduates, the extra effort she gave to make the database system a success, and her willingness to adapt to new systems that will ultimately improve ease and efficiency of data tracking; Dr. Hugh Smeltekop, the director of the UAC-CP, for his insights and extensive knowledge that helped make sense of seemingly odd survey results; Sister Chris Cullen and Sister Jean Morrissey for their tireless commitment to the UAC-CP and their faithful support of my work; Tara Nolan, CPF’s executive director as well as founding donor Anne Leahy for the encouraging and constructive feedback on the initial data analysis; Dr. Ricardo Godoy, statistics professor at The Heller School, for his responsiveness and helpfulness during the data analysis process; Dr. Kelley Ready, professor and practicum advisor at The Heller School, for her consistent support and guidance during my search for a practicum; UAC-CP funders, Cristobal Aguilar Aponte and Sergio Urioste Ariarte of ACDI-VOCA (USAID) La Paz as well as food cooperative donor Claudio Merisio of Cross International for their valuable feedback on the phrasing and content of the survey questions; collaborators Patricia Perez Gomez and Emily Moradel of Zamorano University of Honduras as well as Brian Miller of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for providing valuable insight on graduate data collection and data storage techniques; UAC-CP fellow volunteers and visitors, Laura, Josh, Lukas, Jo, Ryan, Anna, David, Emilie, Michele, Javier, Katie, Narayani, and Lee, for their daily companionship and support; and finally my sister Lauren Satterlee and mother Ann Sykora for their consistent love and support.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS & TERMS

Abbreviations

ACDI-VOCA………… CPF…………………… FONADAL……………. GDP………………….. GNI…………………… IESALC-UNESCO…… INE……………………. MNR…………………… PPP……………………. UPEA…………………. UAC-CP………………. UCB…………………… UII…………………….. UMSA…………………. UNIBOL……………….. USAID…………………

a USAID-funded private non-profit and a UAC-CP funder Carmen Pampa Fund (http://carmenpampafund.org/) Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Alternativo (National Alternative Development Fund) gross domestic product gross national income Instituto Internacional para la Educación Superior en América

Latina y el Caribe (International Institute for Higher Education in Latin American and the Carribean) – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Institute of Statistics) Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement) purchasing power parity Universidad Pública de El Alto (Public University of El Alto) Unidad Académica Campesina – Carmen Pampa

(http://www.uac-cp.edu/bo) Universidad Católica Bolivana “San Pablo” (Catholic University of Bolivia “Saint Paul”) Universidad Indígena Intercultural (Indigenous Intercultural University) Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (Major University of San Andres) Universidad Indígena Boliviana (Indigenous University of Bolivia) U.S. Agency for International Development

Terms

Colegio……………………

Docente ………………..

Egresado………………….

Licenciatura………………

Sustainable…………......

Titulados………………....

Universidad………………

high school teacher at the university level, who does not have a degree higher than a licenciatura

a Bolivian university graduate who has finished all courses but not the thesis defense and does not have an official degree the Bolivian equivalent of an undergraduate degree, but it usually includes five years of courses and one year of thesis work, for a total of six years a project, program, or institution that sustains itself through a system of social, economic, and environmental means a Bolivian university graduate who has a degree and has finished all courses as well as the thesis defense

university

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Case Study: The Development Problem

The purpose of this case study is to look at the role of higher education in the rural areas of Bolivia and its role in encouraging sustainable development through contextualized and accessible degree programs in communities where there exist higher rates of poverty and higher numbers of people who identify with an indigenous group. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, with 51.3% of its population living below the national poverty line in 2009 (World, 2012). A 2009 statistics report from Bolivia’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicates that Bolivia has richness in cultural and ethnic diversity; 52% of the total population and 69% of the rural population identifies with at least one of the 38 recognized indigenous ethnicities that exist in Bolivia, which include Quechua, Aymará, Guaraní, Mosetén, and Chiquitano (INE, 2009a). Although overall poverty rates have declined slightly in the past few years, many inequities still exist between indigenous and non-indigenous populations as well as between rural and urban populations. In 2009, 43% of the urban population was living below the poverty line while 66% of the rural population was living in poverty (INE, 2009b). In a 2005 report on poverty in rural areas, poverty rates were 86% for indigenous rural populations and 74% for non-indigenous rural populations, and 72% of the rural population spoke an indigenous language versus only 36% of the urban population (World, 2005). The rates of extreme poverty actually increased from 65% to 72% for indigenous groups between 1997 and 2002, while rates decreased for non-indigenous groups from 53% to 52% (World, 2005). In the last half century, many efforts have been made to decrease poverty rates, secure human rights, and increase education access for indigenous peoples. This progress included the election of the first indigenous president, Evo Morales, in 2004 and his re-election in 2010, as well as the institution of a new constitution in 2009 that provides for many indigenous rights. It also included the passage of a new Education Law in 2010 that, amongst other things, requires one indigenous language in addition to Spanish to be taught in all schools (Bolivia, 2012). However, the implementation of these changes is taking time and there continue to be inequities between those from indigenous or African descent and those from Spanish or foreign descent. In a country which readily professes its appreciation for indigenous identity, the loss of indigenous practices such as dress and livelihood practices observed by researchers in the youngest generations stands out as incongruent. During my trips throughout the rural areas of the Department of La Paz to survey university graduates, I observed that young people are savvy in modern technologies and the opportunities that exist in the world, and they very seldom wear indigenous attire but they remain loyal to their communities and cultures. There exists a dichotomy and dilemma for many young people of indigenous descent today – a need to choose between a commitment to maintain their traditional cultural identity and the benefits of pursuing a higher education degree. Often higher education degrees and institutions do not allow indigenous students to become agents of sustainable development in their own communities; often the specialized programs that allow students to become professionals in areas that support indigenous livelihoods and indigenous communities are unavailable. In addition, the majority of

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universities in Bolivia are located in large urban areas like La Paz, and the costs associated with housing and attendance are too high for young people from rural areas. Furthermore, attendance at these urban universities would take students away from their indigenous communities and would separate them from the communities in which they hope to work after graduation. From my experience working with indigenous families in Mexico and with families of second-generation immigrant youth in the United States, I have observed the conflict that parents experience in deciding whether their children should get public education and be immersed in mainstream society, or whether it is more important that they are educated through culturally-specific, indigenous, or informal methods that will ensure their understanding and continuation of their culture and community. A university on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains in rural Bolivia is attempting to bridge this divide and create sustainable development by providing culturally-relevant and context-specific higher education.

1.2 Case Study: The Scope

This case study draws on field research in the form of a survey, semi-formal interviews, a literature review, and a document review. The location is the province of Nor Yungas, a rural area of Bolivia where the Unidad Académica

Campesina - Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) is located and where many of its students

originate. There are very few higher education institutions in Bolivia that are working to provide education in the rural area and in the context of rural indigenous livelihoods, but the UAC-CP is one of them. The UAC-CP was founded in 1993 and has been recognized extensively for its methods of working to end the cycle of poverty. In May 2011, the UAC model was recognized by the Education and Health Committee of the Legislative Assembly of Bolivia as a “Meritorious Institution of the State” for its work in higher education and sustainable development (USAID, 2011). Information for the case study was gathered from UAC-CP institutional records, Carmen Pampa Fund (CPF) documents, a survey of UAC-CP graduates, semi-formal interviews and site visits with graduates, informal conversations with current students and graduates as well as UAC-CP faculty and Carmen Pampa community members, and independent research of journal articles and other published works. Institutional records on graduate profiles were not aggregated at the time that this case study began and the process of aggregation was helpful in understanding the type of information that is valuable to the UAC-CP. All graduates for whom contact information was available were contacted about the survey and there were 180 respondents from the full spectrum of graduation years; 1999 through 2012. There were 120 male respondents and 60

Figure 1: Case Study & Practicum Location: Bolivia, South America

Map by Rachel Satterlee

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female respondents, as well as respondents from each of the degree programs. Full descriptive statistics of the survey respondents can be found in the Discussion section and in Table 1 (p.32). Most graduates’ current work supports the rural area, and almost all are still living within the larger department of La Paz. The survey consists of 88 questions and it collects detailed information on demographics, employment, family history/origin, cultural practices, language use, community involvement, and feedback on the UAC-CP experience. Some questions mirror those that were included in the national census in order to measure poverty, so that poverty levels of graduates can be compared to national rates. As many surveys as possible were conducted in person through in-person visits to alumni in their current location of employment and/or residence. At the same time, informal interviews were also conducted with these graduates and photos and videos were taken in order to get a more personalized reflection of the effect that the UAC-CP has had on their lives as well as a more detailed picture of their life paths. An electronic version of the survey was sent out to alumni who could not be visited in person. Informal conversations with current UAC-CP students as well as one undergraduate student from a catholic university in La Paz also helped clarify motivations for attending the UAC-CP and the differing perspectives of rural versus urban education. Formal interactions with faculty regarding the current location of graduates provided an opportunity to pose semi-formal questions to them about their interaction with graduates and their interpretation of the effect that the UAC-CP has had on the reduction of poverty. Before this survey was implemented, the graduate database was outdated and missing information and entire graduate records. The Carmen Pampa Fund staff as well as the UAC-CP academic secretary had been keeping separate records of graduate coursework, grades, thesis defenses, and contact information. The data needed to be aggregated, verified, and augmented with information like national ID numbers and birth dates. Along with the UAC-CP information technology manager and a few student volunteers, I worked to update the database content and format so that it could be used to its full capacity. Investigation of recent journal articles and other literary sources on the topics of education, indigenous issues, and poverty in Bolivia served to provide broader background knowledge for the case study, as well as details relevant to the context of Nor Yungas. The informal interviews that I conducted with graduates before and after surveys also served to provide context and personalized stories to support the case study.

1.3 Fieldwork Practicum

This paper is a result of a six-month master’s practicum with the UAC-CP, a rural university outside of La Paz, Bolivia. The UAC-CP mission is to empower rural, poor, marginalized, indigenous families who have little to no access to higher education to become professionals in one of five degree areas that are related to their livelihoods; agronomy, education, nursing, rural tourism, or veterinary science. Promoting a respect for both human life and the environment, the UAC-CP prepares its students to serve the poor and their communities through a curriculum of classroom studies as well as practical application of their studies through hands-on learning via community extension work. The UAC-CP is funded by sources like USAID, FONADAL, Fundación Nuevo Norte, and the Carmen Pampa Fund (CPF), an NGO based in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. The UAC-CP had 53 students in its inaugural class in 1993, which grew to 507 in 2002, and most recently the UAC-CP had 714 students enrolled in its five degree programs and its pre-university program in the first semester of 2012. All degree programs except the tourism program are licenciaturas, which is equivalent to an undergraduate degree. Currently the tourism program is a certificate program, but work is being done to upgrade the

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program to a licenciatura program as soon as possible. The majority of students also take English language and culture courses from volunteers who come mainly from the U.S. and Europe.

Activities outside of academics are prevalent and intentionally a core part of the culture at the UAC-CP, a practice which aims to maintain and increase students’ valuation of community service and integration as well as to constantly improve the sustainable nature of the university. All students are required to complete 80 hours of community service per semester, which includes tending to the school grounds and agronomy fields. Students in the nursing program complete extension work, making several trips per week to neighboring rural communities to make house calls to sick community members. The UAC-CP has three methods of producing self-sustaining income which are incorporated into the curriculum of the veterinary and agronomy programs; pork, coffee, and vegetables are produced on campus as part of professional training and are sold to the larger community for profit. Once a year, the college hosts an anniversary celebration which is open to the community and includes food, sports competitions, theater and poetry performances, and a large traditional dance competition. I served as the Impact Evaluation Coordinator at UAC-CP during the six-month practicum, and my responsibilities included the development and implementation of a graduate survey, consultation with various donors about the contents of the survey, working with the campus IT manager to update and revise the database, and utilizing evaluation methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze, map, and return data collected from graduates to the community and donors. My responsibilities also involved working with the campus IT manager and other universities to implement an online network of graduates, working with the student alumni association president to host alumni networking events and to increase the association’s presence in online social networks, taking photos and doing video interviews of graduates, and attending administrative meetings and trainings. Previous to the surveying work involved in my practicum, the UAC-CP had limited data on their graduates and no method of gathering information on how well they were achieving their mission of providing opportunity and contextually valuable knowledge to a population of people that has been marginalized by the mainstream society. The result of my practicum has yielded a visual and statistical portrayal of alumni status and successes, data that can be used to further improve the mission of the college through future evaluations, provide results-based data to donors, and garner community feedback on UAC-CP efforts. Feedback from stakeholders was gathered when the final survey data was presented to UAC-CP staff and faculty as well as some alumni and Carmen Pampa community members in March 2013.

2. BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT

Bolivia is a plurinational state made up of many different groups of indigenous peoples, all of whom deserve the right to thrive, progress, and be educated. The development problem examined within this paper stems from the fact that many indigenous groups, whether they are majority or minority, continue to be left out of development efforts and suffer from their history of colonial repression. Significant gaps exist between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in the areas of education, basic necessities, poverty, employment, and livelihoods.

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Educational systems like the UAC-CP are working to provide modern education and access to well-paying jobs for young people while also allowing them to maintain their indigenous identity and traditional livelihoods. However, there are questions as to whether the results achieved are successful at reducing the aforementioned gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, or if different tactics should be employed. The questions surrounding how to remedy these gaps are many, including: “How are graduates employed now and how are they serving their communities: directly, indirectly, or not at all?” and “How important is this in order to achieve sustainable development?” And, “How are rural universities like the UAC-CP finding innovative ways to end cycles of poverty?” In order to provide a historical and informational basis upon which to explore these questions, a review of the educational, employment, economic, and poverty measurement systems relating to indigenous Bolivians is provided here.

2.1 Education in Bolivia

In general, primary school enrollment within Bolivia is slightly below the global average at 80.8% in 2009, having risen significantly after major efforts towards universal primary education (INE, 2011a). Secondary school enrollment rates were low at 47.2% in 2009, however this was an 8.8% increase since 2000 (INE, 2011a). In total, 2009 enrollment rates for kindergarten through secondary school were at 64.6%, having decreased 1.3% since 2000 (INE, 2011a). However, when broken down by gender and location, post-secondary completion rates show inequities in these areas. In urban areas, secondary school completion rates are at 65% for men and 50% for women, whereas in rural areas rates are extremely low 20% for men and 10% for women (Ministerio, 2004). Although there are many universities in Bolivia, the majority are expensive private universities that are inaccessible to most of the population. Many more people are enrolled in public universities, where it seems that quantity of degrees awarded is valued more than quality of professors or learning.

2.2 Indigenous Education in Bolivia

Bolivia achieved independence from Spain in 1825, but this did not translate into equality for the indigenous majority within Bolivia. Populations were still marginalized, and education continued to be seen as a tool to “civilize the Indian” (Sichra et al., 2007, p.6 as citied in Delany-Barmann, 2010). In the Chaco War of 1932-35 between Bolivia and Paraguay, many Bolivian lives were lost because many indigenous Bolivian soldiers were unable to communicate with each other and with the Paraguayans. This increased governmental impetus to require Spanish language learning and “the castilianization of the Indigenous population" (Delany-Barmann, 2010, p.183). It was not until the 1952 revolution led by the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, MNR) when the indigenous majority of Bolivia was able to gain specific rights and power, such as liberation from slavery, reform of the agrarian and mining sectors, access to education, and universal voting rights (Luykx, 1999 as cited in Delany-Barmann, 2010). The term ‘plurinational’ was coined by indigenous groups who united to rise up and demand equality. The term has been used to rename of country itself, becoming the Plurinational State of Bolivia made up of many independent, self-governing nations of

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indigenous ethnic groups. However, the original meaning of the word and the progress and equality at the heart of other pro-indigenous efforts has not been comprehensive. For example, a 2005 report from the World Bank entitled Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and

Human Development in Latin America: 1994-2004 took a close look at the changes that had happened during the “International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.” It found that large gaps still exist in total years of schooling and earnings between indigenous and non-indigenous groups. A survey of youth ages 15 years and older showed that, on average, non-indigenous youth had 9.6 years of schooling while indigenous youth only had 5.9 years (World, 2005). In addition, the average total earnings for each additional year of schooling obtained were significantly less for indigenous populations. Non-indigenous people had a 9% increase in income for every additional year of schooling, while indigenous people gained only 6% (World, 2005). These realizations of inequity were impetuses for many subsequent national efforts to increase access to education for indigenous people, as well as to incorporate cultural education into primary and secondary curriculum. The 1994 National Educational Reform in Bolivia, followed by the 2010 Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez Bolivian Education Law, both intended to give equal access to education to traditionally marginalized groups (Delany-Barmann, 2010). The 1994 law included “interculturality and gender equity among its many various components and objectives” and it coincided with the introduction of Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) (Reid, 2008, p.1; Howard, 2009). IBE was designed to require bilingual classrooms, wherein all students would learn at least one indigenous language and teachers would be trained to teach in at least one indigenous language (Howard). A 2003 evaluation of the IBE system found that students from indigenous groups who were taught in their native language “had greater self-esteem and higher academic achievements in reading and writing than those taught in Spanish” (Reyes-García, 2010, p.306). IBE also required that an exchange of indigenous cultures and traditions be incorporated into all classrooms. The 2010 law’s namesake comes from founder of the Warisata school model “which combined socialist philosophy with Aymará cultural and organizational principles” and which was designed especially for educating indigenous people who had no other access to education (Luykx, 1999, p.45 as cited in Delany-Barmann, 2010). But like the ‘plurinational’ term, the originally pure and radical essence behind the term is seen by many to have been diluted, either intentionally by the Morales administration or unintentionally by lack of resources and community consultation. Implementation has proved to be unregulated and inconsistent because of differing viewpoints and realities between policymakers and teachers (Reid, 2011). Many rural teachers are still unaware of the intricacies of the 2010 law, having not been very well informed after its implementation (Strom, 2011). Since indigenous nations were not consulted about the education law before its implementation, many groups are supportive of its content and policy but reluctant to stand behind it because of lack of follow-through and lack of grassroots origin. The goals laid out include “a revolutionary, decolonizing” education with a new emphasis on “productive skills, community involvement, and indigenous language, culture, and knowledge” (Strom, 2011, p.70). The term “decolonization” was meant to bring schooling away from white, elitist, and missionary tendencies that had ruled the country and countryside

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for many years. Leaders within the two largest indigenous groups of the highlands, Quechua and Aymará, believed that “decolonization” and a return to native knowledge might be best. However, less populous lowland indigenous groups were skeptical. They did not want to regress to pre-colonial times, but rather were interested in advancing their access to and level of education competencies. Many are not as interested in spreading knowledge of culture and language as much as they are interested in growing the capacities of their people. Parents were sometimes reluctant to accept the new language requirements, “because they think it is going backwards” (Delany-Barmann, 2010, p.194). Moreover, rural teachers were given few resources to implement the new curriculum, such as books or teaching aids. Thus, its effectiveness in areas where increased equality was most needed turned out to be the most deficient.

2.3 Higher Education in Bolivia

The first university in Bolivia, University of Saint Francis Xavier, was also the second university in all of the Americas and it opened in 1624 as a public institution in the southern constitutional capital of Sucre (Universidad, 2013). However, as recently as 1962, there were only seven universities in Bolivia, only two of which had a degree program related to indigenous livelihoods; veterinary sciences at the University of Gabriel San Moreno in Santa Cruz and agronomy at the University of San Simon in Cochabamba (Cohen, 1965). The first rural campus branched from a larger urban university was built by San Pablo Catholic University of Bolivia in 1987 and now has 2,000 students, 1,800 of whom are indigenous (Bollag, 2006). Data on the current number of universities in Bolivia are not readily available, but there are at least 15 public university campuses and 51 private university campuses in the country (Altillo, 2013). Although there are many more private universities than public universities in La Paz and in Bolivia as a whole, the majority of students attend public universities because they are free. The 2009 enrollment rate for public universities was 323,855, while for private universities it was 94,748 (INE, 2011b). However, within these public universities there exists a higher education model of ‘quantity not quality,’ encouraging mass enrollment of people with varying and often inadequate skill levels, and tending toward a culture of “mass production of diplomas” (Forste, Heaton, & Haas, 2004, p.60). Within the public university of UMSA, only about 4% of professors have a master’s or doctorate-level education. Predictably, this lack of quality “has not promoted the development of a modernized and trained workforce to further economic development” (Chirikos, 1971 as cited in Forste et al., 1994, p.61). Forste et. al conducted a study contrasting urban adolescent expectation to graduate from high school and to enroll in college in La Paz, Bolivia and Bogotá, Colombia. It was found that 75% of urban high school students in La Paz expect to graduate and enroll in college, but it was also acknowledged that poor and rural students are highly marginalized because of lack of access to higher education institutions and low familial income levels. However, statistics show that there is a gap between the numbers of students who aspire to attend university and the numbers of students who actually enroll. According to 2009 INE statistics, the total population of students who are enrolled in public or private university (418,603) as compared with the total number of students who are potential university students (all students of official secondary school age; 1,138,512) translates to a carryover rate of only 37% nationally (40% in La Paz Department) (INE, 2011a; INE, 2011b).

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This means that 63% of secondary-aged students do not become part of the university population, mostly because a vast majority of this same population of secondary-age youth (54%) is not enrolled in secondary school at all and thus have little opportunity to advance to university. However, the population of enrolled secondary students as compared with the population of enrolled university students says that nationally, 78% of secondary students who graduate continue on to university (74% in La Paz Department) (INE, 2011b). This number is much closer to the 75% expected enrollment rate reported in the Forste study, but it does not take into consideration the very low secondary enrollment rate. This means that about 3 in 4 students who are enrolled in secondary education continue on to higher education, but it also means that about 6 in 10 students are not even enrolled in secondary education. It should be noted that the 2001 census data did not provide information on enrollment in private secondary schools, only public secondary schools, so actual percentages may be a bit higher. A 1997 report from The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) states that “the net enrollment rate within the university system is 25% of the college-age population” and it can be assumed that this has increased slightly (Organización, p.12). Graduation rates from public and private universities in Bolivia are very low. 1990 statistics reported 114,252 students enrolled in public and private universities and only 2,796 titulados

(graduates), which is a 2.4% ratio of graduates to enrolled students (Organización, 1997). By 2009, this ratio had increased to 5.0%, with 418,603 students enrolled and 21,063 titulados (INE, 2011b). At the UAC-CP, it is expected to take a student five years to become an egresado (finish courses) and six years to become a titulado (finish the degree), including one year of time to complete the thesis. Nationally, the expected completion times in public and private universities are the same, except for medical programs which are upwards of seven years. Graduation rates, which compare total number of graduates for a certain year with the total number of students enrolled six years prior, give a slightly different result. Looking at national statistics and comparing 2003 enrollment totals with the number of graduates in 2009 (assuming the typical six-year completion time), the 2009 completion rate is about 6.4% for public universities and 8.6% for private universities, with a total average of 6.8% (INE, 2011b). Comparing the UAC-CP’s 2006 enrollment total of 612 with the 64 titulados of 2012, there is a completion rate of about 10.5% (M. Urbina, personal communication, March 11, 2013).

2.4 Indigenous-Specific Higher Education in Bolivia

Following the national efforts to improve primary and secondary education access and quality for indigenous populations, it was recognized that contextualized and indigenous-specific education in higher education needed to be realized as well. Indigenous community members voiced their need for degree programs which were cultural contextual. A few large public universities in Bolivia have created degree programs specifically related to indigenous issues. Bolivia’s largest public university, UMSA, offers a degree in community justice (similar to peaceful conflict resolution) and a technical degree in human rights that specifically trains students in indigenous rights (IESALC-UNESCO, 2012). The Public University of El Alto (UPEA) near La Paz was created in 2000 and caters to a population of 30,000 students, 800 of whom are enrolled in the Linguistics degree program which includes curriculum on indigenous languages (IESALC-UNESCO, 2012; UPEA, 2012).

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The three specifically indigenous UNIBOL (Indigenous University of Bolivia) institutions were created in 2008 by President Morales (Goddard, 2010). Each university is committed to teaching courses in a specific indigenous language that are prevalent in the corresponding region and each university provides coursework in areas related to indigenous realities. Tupac Katari University in the Department of La Paz teaches in the Aymara language and provides career courses in “High Plains agronomy, food and textile industries, veterinary medicine and animal husbandry” (Kearns, 2008, p.2). Casimiro Huanca University in the central Department of Cochabamba teaches in Quechua while providing career courses in “the food industry, forestry and fishery cultivation” (Kearns, p.2). Lastly, Apiaguaiki Tupa University in the southern Department of Chuquisaca teaches in the Guarani language and focuses on tracks in “hydrocarbons, fishery cultivation, veterinary medicine and animal husbandry” (Kearns, p.2). All three campuses are named after prominent indigenous leaders. Other universities that specifically target indigenous populations were opened around the same time as the UNIBOL universities. The Indigenous Intercultural University (UII) was created in 2005 by the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the

Caribbean, nicknamed The Indigenous Fund, an entity created through a UN treaty signed by 22 Latin American and Caribbean nations. UII’s purpose was “to respond to the needs of indigenous peoples through academic training opportunities based on their own spirituality and worldview, which revalued and developed their own knowledge” (IESALC-UNESCO, 2012, p.44). Other similar institutions include AGRUCO of Cochabamba, The Normal Superior Multi-Ethnic Institute of Tumuchugua of the eastern Chaco and Amazonian region of Bolivia, and the Program for the Formation of Intercultural Bilingual Education for Andean Countries (PROEIB-Andes) of Cochabamba (IESALC-UNESCO, 2012).There are also universities such as the Intercultural University of Kawsay Indigenous Origin (UNIK) which has training programs in indigenous self-government, indigenous rights, biodiversity, and environmentally-sound production (IESALC-UNESCO, 2012). The Unidad Academica Campesina - Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) was founded as one of five UAC universities established in the 1980s and 1990s in the northern rural area of Bolivia, an area that previously did not have universities. Since that time, the UAC-CP has become an independent regional unit under the Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB), but it still maintains its original name, model, and mission. The UAC model is to provide indigenous and rural youth access to university education in degree areas relevant to local livelihoods such as agronomy, nursing, rural tourism, veterinary sciences, and education. The UAC-CP mission is to provide professional training and prepare graduates “to meet the most pressing needs of the community, promoting socio-economic liberation” (UAC-CP, 2012). Sr. Damon Nolan, a Franciscan nun and the founder of the UAC-CP, had worked in alternative adult education in the area of Carmen Pampa and was the director of the Carmen Pampa high school during the 1980s. Through her work and conversations with the community, it became clear that there was a need for local university-level education. She began planning with the community in 1990, which involved consultation with four entities: the Catholic University of Bolivia, the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception based in Boston, the Diocese of Coroico (the nearest larger city center), and the “Villa Nilo Sub-Central (a local governing body of the indigenous Aymaran people)” (Mechtenberg, 2013, p.1). By 1993 the UAC-CP was opened.

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2.5 Poverty and the Measurement of Poverty in Bolivia

The UAC-CP is working to both eliminate poverty through education and to encourage students to create sustainable livelihoods in service of their own communities. It is important to understand how poverty is measured in Bolivia, so that information gathered for the case study can be compared to national statistics and it can be determined whether development and poverty alleviation is occurring as a result of the UAC-CP. In the survey of current graduates, information regarding job title and function, population served, sustainable efforts accomplished, and changes in poverty measurements since childhood is gathered. It is a reality that sometimes graduates have risen out of the extreme poverty, are employed well, and have separated themselves from the lack of education that their parents experienced, but some are not working directly in their field of training or are only indirectly serving their communities. In assessing the effectiveness of the UAC-CP in encouraging sustainable development, it will be important to compare graduates’ status with national poverty levels. Currently, Bolivia’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) measures poverty using the Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) approach, which is considered a direct multidimensional measurement. An income measure is also used, measuring actual incomes and the level of income needed to meet these basic needs, which is considered an indirect measure (Santos, Lugo, Lopez-Calva, Cruces, & Battiston, 2010). A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) survey in Bolivia recently found that more than 70% of the population said that “a good job and earnings” was one of the most important dimensions of well-being, so it is important to pay attention to this measure (World, 2010, p.3). There have also been efforts by the Morales government to incorporate multidimensional measures, such as the Vivir Bien or ‘live well’ program which was included in the 2009 constitution and aimed to add measures of poverty that focused on areas such as “employment quality, empowerment, physical safety, dignity and self-respect, [and] meaning and value” (Alkire, 2009, p.19). However, it is said that citizens have not seen the results of these efforts. In addition, some experts in the field of multidimensional measurements like Martin Ravallion (2011) even question whether it is reasonable to try to measure so many dimensions by one aggregated number, or if disaggregated data displayed side-by-side actually tells a better story. Concerning the estimate of total number of people living in poverty, there is a significant difference between national poverty line estimates and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) measurements. The national poverty line measures poverty through an income measure while the MPI measures poverty through the intensity of 10 indicators within the areas education, health, and living standards. The national poverty line categorizes 51.3% of the Bolivian population as poor, while the MPI designates only 20.5% of the population as poor as defined as being deprived in at least one third of the ten indicators (World, 2012; Oxford 2013). There is an additional 18.7% of the population who is defined as being “vulnerable to poverty” and is deprived in one fifth to one third of the indicators (Oxford, 2013). However, the breakdown of both the measurements shows inequity between urban and rural populations. The percentage of people below the national poverty line in rural areas is 66.4% whereas in the urban areas it is 43.5% (World, 2012). The MPI tells a significant story, in that the total MPI measurement for Bolivia is 0.089, but when divided between rural and urban populations, the rural poverty level is 0.90 while the urban poverty level is significantly lower at only 0.02 (Oxford, 2013). Since 72% of the rural population speaks an indigenous language and 69% of the rural population

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identifies with an indigenous group, this is a powerful depiction of the inequities that exist (World, 2005; INE, 2009a). In addition, the second-largest indicator within the MPI measure, which significantly contributes to the increased rate in rural areas, is years of schooling at 12.5% of the measurement (Oxford, 2013). Therefore, the lack of education attainment is among the leading factors driving multidimensional poverty in rural areas. The Human Development Index (HDI), partially inspired by Amartya Sen’s approach to measuring development through the measurement of capabilities and functionings, measures poverty through indicators of life expectancy, expected and achieved number of years of schooling, and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) rates (UNDP, 2013a). The HDI rating for Bolivia is currently at 0.675, with a rank of 108 out of 187 countries (58th percentile), placing it at the “medium” level of development in a scale of very high, high, medium, and low, and fifth-lowest in all of Latin America, ahead of Haiti, Guyana, Honduras, and Guatemala (UNDP, 2013a). However, there is a high rate of inequality in Bolivia; the national Gini rating, where 0 is perfect equality and 100 is perfect inequality, is 56.3 which ranks third worst amongst the 47 countries measured in 2008 (World, 2012). The UNDP states that “the HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development and the Inequality Adjusted HDI (IHDI) as an index of actual human development” (UNDP, 2013b, p.4). When the HDI is adjusted for inequality, it drops significantly. There a “loss” of about 34.2% to arrive at an IHDI of 0.444, at a rank of 88 out of 136 countries measured (64th percentile) (UNDP, 2013b). Purely under the GDP measure of 2011, Bolivia’s income level is rated “lower-middle” (World, 2012).

2.6 Employment and Income in Bolivia

The mission of the UAC model is to provide professional training in areas specific to indigenous livelihoods so that students from rural areas can work towards elimination of poverty in their communities. However, once training is complete, formal employment is currently scarce in certain sectors, such as veterinary sciences and agriculture. University graduates sometimes resort to independent consulting, taking on many various jobs across vast regions to remain gainfully employed. National unemployment as of 2007 was at a normal level of about 5.2%, although it is not clear whether this figure takes into consideration non-formal market employment such as the many indigenous people who conduct sales of food or craft items without a registered store (Bolivia, 2012). This statistic also seems to contradict other figures, such as the 18.8% employment rate in the industrial sector, the 36.8% employment rate in the agricultural sector, and a rate of 62.1% female participation and 82% male participation in the labor market (Bolivia, pp.4-5). GNI per capita measured in PPP1 was at about $4,444 US in 2012, which ranked 119th out of 191 countries at a 62nd percentile rating (World 2012a). Gross domestic product (GDP)2 increased from $8,398,000 US to $17,340,000 US from 2000 to 2009, a 103% increase (Bolivia, 2012). Much of these increases do not come from a high proportion of rural livelihoods activities, however. Through methods indicated in the next section, this contextual background on Bolivia will be able to be compared and contrasted with the current realities of the UAC-CP educational system and the current realities of UAC-CP graduates. 1 GNI is gross national income: “a rough measure of annual national income per person in different countries” (distribution, 2013). PPP is purchasing power parity: “the ratio between the currencies of two countries at which each currency when exchanged for the other will purchase the same quantity of goods as it purchases at home excluding customs duties and costs of transport” (purchasing, 2013). 2 GDP is gross domestic product: “Total market value of the goods and services produced by a nation’s economy during a specific period of time” (gross, 2013).

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3. METHODS

The development questions identified for this paper were explored through a careful implementation of a case study. The case study drew information primarily from a literature review and from the data and insight that I collected through revising and implementing a survey of UAC-CP graduates, part of my work practicum responsibilities. (See Appendix A for a copy of the survey.) I also drew upon previous learning from my year-in-residence studies at Brandeis University and from my past work experience with Latin American and indigenous families. Desk studies of grey materials from the Carmen Pampa Fund and the UAC-CP as well as informal interview questions with graduates and with current administrators and professors at the UAC-CP were also an important aspect of the case study.

3.1 The Survey

At the beginning of my work practicum at the UAC-CP, I revised a survey that was originally created in 2010 by University of Minnesota public policy masters student Aara Johnson. I augmented the survey with questions that I felt were pertinent to my case study as well as to capturing the effectiveness of the mission of UAC-CP. After the questions were revised, I worked with my field supervisor to perfect the grammar and phrasing in Spanish. We consulted with multiple donors regarding revisions (including USAID’s ACDI-VOCA and Cross International) and consulted a few institutions on techniques for gathering and storing graduate data (including Zamorano University of Honduras and the University of Tulsa). The survey was implemented through site visits to homes and workplaces of graduates in their towns, via a paper survey that the graduate filled out. The sampling techniques used were purposive sampling as well as snowball sampling. The individuals interviewed were selected because of their status of having completed all courses for a degree program at the UAC-CP. When contact information was not available for some graduates or it was not clear which graduates lived in which towns, often contact information was gathered from other graduates in the area. Because the sample was based largely on whether current contact information could be found for the person, the results are not a scientifically random sample of the entire population of people who have attended the UAC-CP. Graduates were contacted through cell phone calls and text messages and were surveyed and interviewed at their home or workplace or through meetings set up in public locations. After the graduate had finished the survey, I checked over the survey to see if any questions were left blank, inquired as to why they were blank, and asked them to answer if at all possible. I then took photos of the graduate and asked a few informal interview questions about job satisfaction, degree satisfaction, and their experience at the UAC-CP. The survey was also implemented through e-surveying, which accounted for about 26% of the respondents and which involved infrequent opportunity for informal interview questions. The survey was conducted in Spanish, and data was manually entered into an electronic database managed by the UAC-CP’s IT department. After the data was collected and stored, I created a system to analyze and map the data, using Excel, GIS mapping, and the UAC-CP website. This allowed me to make conclusions about questions related to my development problem, such as whether students are employed in their field, if they are earning more money after graduation, if they are directly or indirectly serving their native or indigenous community, if they have assumed leadership in their communities, and if they have developed or improved sustainable livelihoods for their families and communities.

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3.2 The Literature Review & Desk Studies

For the literature review and the desk studies, I employed methods of document review. I conducted an informal interview with Aara Johnson in order to get a better idea of the reasons why she included specific questions in the survey. I reviewed past newsletters, annual reports, and other public and private records both at CPF and the UAC-CP. I also conducted informal interviews with my field supervisor and the Vice-Director of the college regarding past volunteer projects and how they could be augmented. A research and GIS mapping project that I completed during my year in residence on the topics of education, poverty rates, and indigenous populations in Bolivia served as a basis for understanding this recent history and the changes that have occurred over time. I also drew on knowledge from a collaborative research paper that I completed in an Education & Development course, which looked at alternative education and literacy training and techniques in rural areas of developing nations. Research that I had done on poverty measurements in Bolivia for my Poverty, Inequalities & Development course served as a starting point for further research and recommendations in this area. I also employed the learning from my Monitoring & Evaluation course in the analysis of the data and information that I collected throughout this case study.

3.3 Professional Work

I reviewed the professional work that I have done with Latino and Somali communities in Minneapolis and St. Paul to promote access to higher education for marginalized peoples. This involved reading the publications and web pages that I created, as well as past and current reports and publications of the NGOs with whom I worked. This allowed me to provide a global context for my analysis. All methods employed in this case study were conducted so as to get a balanced view of the history and current status of the UAC-CP and its graduates, as well as a picture of the current state of indigenous peoples in Bolivia. I carried a notebook at all times, in order to note insights that sprang from informal and impromptu conversations. It became very useful to rely on the network of graduates to provide me with access to other graduates, and the essential skills that I utilized were informal networking, surveying, data organization, and data analysis.

3.4 Timeline of Case Study

Task 2012 2013

09 10 11 12 01 02 03 04 05

Edit and augment survey x x

Aggregate current graduate data x x

Review year-in-residence and past work x x x

Review grey literature x x x

Conduct literature review x x x x x x

Work with IT, admin, and students to gather, format, and import current data into database

x x x

Implement survey and informal interviews x x x

Aggregate and import survey data x x x

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Create GIS and interactive maps of survey data x x x

Collect community feedback on data and future surveying

x x

Draft and finalize Master’s Paper x x x x x x x x

Present Master’s Paper x

3.5 Limitations

Since many graduates are employed in rural areas, they have infrequent access to internet and often their email accounts are shut off and become outdated very quickly. Because of this, it was difficult to conduct the survey in an electronic format, and was more effective yet much more time- and resource-consuming to visit graduates in their current locations. However, these interpersonal interactions were very rich, and allowed for in-depth informal conversation about their experience at the UAC-CP and their current lives. Data, as a result, captured less of the total population of alumni than I had hoped at the outset of the project, but the data that I did obtain were rich. In addition, the UAC-CP IT manager was the only person who was fluent in the functions of the graduate database but he was often very busy with the many technical projects and setbacks on campus, such as power, phone, and internet outages. For this reason, the data processing and analysis took longer than expected and limited the number of further surveys that could be collected.

4. LITERATURE REVIEW

4.1 Why are rural and indigenous populations poorer in Bolivia?

4.1.1 Education as a Solution to Poverty and Inequity for Indigenous Populations

According to many different poverty measurements, indigenous populations in Bolivia are considered far poorer than non-indigenous populations. There are many indicators used to measure poverty, such as education, health, living standards, consumption, and income. The reasons for lower rural poverty measurements are plentiful, such as lack of access to schools, disagreement by parents with the schools’ chosen manner of teaching, language barriers, lack of access to adequate health facilities, lack of appropriate hygiene, limited employment options, discrimination, and lower pay rates as well as differences in habits, preferences, traditions, livelihoods, and lifestyles. However, the one indicator in this group that can actively provide a source for raising the quality of many of the other indicators, such as living standards and income, is arguably education.

4.2 Why are rural and indigenous populations less educated in Bolivia?

4.2.1 Efforts in Intercultural and Contextual Education: Primary and Secondary Levels

In the arena of primary and secondary education in Bolivia, there have been strides made for Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and other indigenous populations, many of whom speak Spanish as a second language. As noted above, the 1994 Bolivian National Education Reform, the subsequent Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) requirements, and the 2010 Education Law

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all advanced indigenous educational rights and access through formal recognition of differences in language, knowledge, and familial background. As a result of the 1994 and 2010 national education policy changes, an effort to provide contextualized learning in primary and secondary classrooms began – one that not only provided instruction in an indigenous language, but within a context drawn from indigenous ways of knowing. However, there are those who believe that intercultural education essentially contradicts the idea of creating and providing universal and standardized education. Hornberger (2000) writes about the “ideological paradox inherent in transforming a standardizing education into a diversifying one and in constructing a national identity that is also multilingual and multicultural” (p.1). It is debated whether the quality of education would be higher if specialized schools were created for specialized groups. There are others who believe that providing intercultural education for all primary and secondary students, contextualized in their unique realities, improves the educational experience for everyone. Reid (2008) says that required indigenous language and culture in schools encourages interculturalism, not just multiculturalism, because it involves interchange and direct experience. However, she fears that if not done properly, incorporation of indigenous language and culture into schools threatens to reduce indigenous culture to simply “its music, its dances [and] its traditions” and does not educate about the realities of previous and current discrimination and does not provide the full depth of the entire culture (p.61). This oversimplification of cultures seems bound to occur since the school day and the school year are limited by time, but proponents would argue that the benefit of introducing interculturalism, even if oversimplified, would be better than no intercultural education at all. True intercultural education draws in a larger proportion of the population by accommodating for and celebrating differences in language, culture, and knowledge and it educates the whole population on the multitude of realities that exist. In this way, intercultural education aims to reduce inequity in education levels, poverty levels, and levels of understanding between people of different cultures and locations. This is especially important to efforts at the primary and secondary levels to narrow the gap between education levels of non-indigenous and indigenous populations.

It can also be argued that contextualized learning humanizes the effort towards universal education. Reyes-García (2010) believes that “contextualized learning might help avoid that the provision of universal education comes at the cost of humanity’s cultural diversity” (p.1). The many efforts by the Bolivian government to make primary and secondary education multicultural and inclusive have indeed created a new vision for universal education – one that defines universal not only as standardized but also as all-inclusive. Reyes-García (2010) argues that contextualized learning allows students to more readily absorb course material because it allows students to “establish a link between theory and practice” (p.306). However, it is still unclear as to the concrete benefits of combining conventional education with contextualized learning. Reyes-García cites multiple studies, including those that have analyzed whether formal schooling reduces indigenous knowledge (Sternberg et al., 2001), whether formal schooling that is contextualized with indigenous knowledge actually increases aptitude in both areas (Ruiz-Malle´n et al., 2009) or whether there is neither a positive nor a negative association (Godoy, 2009). Ultimately, all of these studies have provided valuable and relevant proof points, and subsequently the relationship between conventional learning and indigenous learning is not conclusive.

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There still exist significant educational completion gaps between urban and rural populations as well as between non-indigenous and indigenous populations in the areas of primary and secondary education, as mentioned in the Background section. Because efforts have been made to make primary and secondary education more accessible, intercultural, and contextual, it could be questioned whether indigenous and rural education levels continue to lag because most higher education prospects continue to be low quality, inaccessible, and culturally irrelevant.

4.2.2 Obstacles to Empowerment as a Result of Education

Bolivia’s current education record calls into question the notion that education is a certain route to empowerment for indigenous populations. Delany-Barmann (2010) notes that the indigenous cultural practices implemented at school are often relegated to weekly half-hour sessions called hora cívica (which is also the case at UAC-CP), wherein the national anthem is recited and students present poems and other cultural presentations. This type of relegation of interculturalism as well as a non-encouragement of critical thinking and an emphasis on authoritarianism within the classroom is something that still impedes empowerment vis-à-vis education. Obtaining grades as well as official documents and titles sometimes appear to be valued more than attendance in class, mastery of material, creative thinking, and completion of thesis defenses. Torres (1996) and others have analyzed what is called the ‘hidden curriculum’ and see education as “a system of classification and skills screening for the labour market” which “legitimizes the knowledge system of authority” (Regalsky & Laurie, 2007, p.233). From informal conversations with current students at the UAC-CP, I learned that there exists discrimination between groups of differing ethnic and economic backgrounds within Bolivian schools, and often these tensions are not formally addressed through psychological support or conflict resolution. There are also obstacles within the education system, especially in rural institutions, including the UAC-CP, which arise and are unpredictable and uncontrollable, such as loss of electricity, loss of internet, loss of cell phone tower signal, and expensive and slow bandwidth of internet. However, only a few years prior to 2012, rural areas such as Carmen Pampa had no access to cell phones or internet, and unreliable landline telephones, so growth in technology, although not without many problems, has allowed significant empowerment through access to knowledge and resources. Another obstacle within the higher education system is the length of degree programs. It was noted previously that the minimum number of years to complete a university degree in Bolivia is six years, including a one-year period for the composition of a thesis. This is two years longer than the typical undergraduate degree program in the U.S., and often rural students who receive funding to complete their courses do not receive funding to support them while they complete their thesis. According to responses from the survey, 62% of graduates had at least one scholarship for their coursework, but only 39% had funding to support their thesis work. Because of this lack of funding and because of the significant amount of time between completing courses and graduating, some UAC-CP students do not complete their thesis or officially graduate. This makes them ineligible for many jobs and does not allow them to use their education to its full potential. Many of graduates who were surveyed who had not yet defended their theses told me that they would very much like to complete their degrees, but that it is nearly impossible to find time to complete the thesis once it is necessary to find employment

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to support oneself. Many graduates move away from Carmen Pampa to find income, in the process oft starting a family and purchasing houses in other areas, which create further obstacles to finishing the degree.

An additional obstacle to empowerment within the education system is the fact that it is hard to determine whether modern education is a threat to traditional lifestyle and it is begins to bring into question the very definition of ‘indigenous.’ Often, the appreciation and preservation of indigenous culture comes dangerously close to seeing indigenous people as “unchanging” and the opposite of urban people who are constantly progressing and advancing (Reid, 2011, p.99). In addition, there is a debate as to whether the very definition of “indigenous” is changing, since there are now some Bolivians who live in an urban area, dress in a western style, and do not speak an indigenous language but who still identify with an indigenous group. On the other hand, there are people who dress in indigenous style but who are not seen as indigenous by the urban population. A young undergraduate student at the national Universidad Catolica

Boliviana (UCB) and a native of La Paz who came to visit the UAC-CP commented to me once during a conversation on the topic of indigenousness that she believes the women who dress in indigenous clothing (a large skirt, top hat, and two long braids) and live in La Paz are not as authentically indigenous. She believes in past decades it was not culturally accepted to be indigenous, but now it has become so supported that the clothing has almost become a trend. She explained to me the origin of this style of dress was Spain, in fact, and that the skirts can often be very expensive. She had observed while growing up in La Paz that people who lived in this urban area and dress this way are wealthier than rural indigenous populations and often do not have the religion, traditions, and culinary practices that are associated with the individual indigenous groups. She asserted that many people, at least in the urban area, do not know their family ancestry or whether they descend from specific indigenous groups. Thus, they feel free to choose and create their own association, but it is not authentic. Another change she has observed is that the term “chola,” which can be used to describe women who dress in indigenous clothing, has become seen as politically incorrect and derogatory, since there are many different types of people who dress in this way. There are some young indigenous people who have established their lives in urban areas, and there are examples of some “female market vendors [who have] gained unprecedented access to formal education [and] are returning to the informal open-air markets armed with degrees in business and economics” (Scarborough, 2010, p.1). This calls into question whether their higher education has allowed them to more fully support their culture, or has lessened their commitment to their tradition.

4.2.3 Rural to Urban Migration to Attend University

The 2010 educational reform law included efforts to encourage rural students to see higher education as something that is suitable for them, along with urban students, by implementing a program that issued children’s books through the Ministry of Education that depicted images and stories of rural students going into La Paz for their university education (Reid, 2011, p.97). Two examples of such books depict young women obtaining their university degree in the urban area and then returning to the rural area to serve their communities. It is unclear whether this is a gesture supportive of maintaining indigenous identity, or whether it is purposefully limiting the prospects of rural students, in that they are not meant to be “professionals” in the urban area or they could not be trained as “professionals” in the rural area. It again raises the idea of allowing the student, rural or urban, to choose their degree and choose the place where they live and work

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after graduation, and the potential costs and benefits of this. Some graduates of the UAC-CP commute to a different city to work than the city where they live. Many make this trip between two rural areas each week, returning to their home on the weekends. Fewer students commute between rural and urban areas. I will discuss specific statistics of urban-rural graduate movement in the Discussion section. Higher education has been seen as inaccessible by rural minority and indigenous populations for a large part of Bolivia’s history, mostly because of the need to travel to the urban area and the lack of degrees related to the rural area. Sometimes higher education is seen as modern and unrelated to indigenous realities, thus directly opposed to the idea of maintaining cultural identity and traditions. Robert Whitney Templeman (1998) proved this through research he conducted in the village of Tocaña, which is largely Afrobolivian and is located in the same Nor Yungas region as Carmen Pampa, near the larger town of Coroico. He reported that Tocaña did not have electricity or running water until 1997, and in 2004 it received cell phone service only shortly after it received landline phone service. These rapid advances in development have caused a change in attitude towards education and higher education. Templeman observed that in the 1990s, secondary students in Tocaña needed to walk 3 hours to Coroico to attend school, sometimes staying there during the week instead of walking every day. Parents encouraged their children to finish secondary school and continue on to university because “they would rather send their children to the city of La Paz and study to become profesionales (professionals) rather than staying in the campo (rural countryside) where farming is the only means of survival” (p.131). This shows the desire of rural parents to give their children a path out of the cycle of poverty. It also shows that prior to the launch of the UAC-CP in 1993, the only route to becoming a professional in the Nor Yungas was to go to enroll in an urban university, abandon the livelihoods of the rural area, and most likely earn a degree that had little relevancy to the rural area.

4.2.4 Quality of Education & Teachers

One concern is that poorer students often do not finish secondary school and are thus ineligible to continue on to higher education. Another concern is that if a poorer, rural indigenous student does in fact graduate from secondary school and decides to attend university, then they are most likely fed into the urban public university system of mass-production and low quality discussed in the Background section. Bolivian economist and development researcher Lykke Andersen believes that “public education spending should provide social benefits, not just private benefits for the upper middle-class” and that it is the Bolivian government’s responsibility to “start thinking about what the country needs instead of automatically funding what students think is most fashionable” (2011, p.70). Andersen is of the opinion that Bolivia’s higher education system should invest much more funds in the “formation of teachers” (currently only at 7% of total spending), something that is reflective of the statistic that only 4% of the teachers at Bolivia’s largest public university, UMSA (the Universidad Mayor de San Andres), have degrees higher than an undergraduate (licenciatura) degree. This is also a challenge at the UAC-CP because there is little funding available to pay the many docentes or professionals who come to teach at the college. Many of the teachers live in La Paz and commute back and forth from the university daily, totaling four to five hours of travel per day. This is because it is difficult to find qualified teachers in the rural area and because many teachers need to supplement their UAC-CP income with a second job in La Paz. Some teachers and all five degree program administrators

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opt to live in Carmen Pampa during the four days each week that classes are held, and then many return to La Paz on the weekends. The rural location, along with pay that is not very high, makes it difficult to attract and maintain teachers. However, many of the teachers and directors are very committed to the mission of the UAC-CP, which is what keeps them coming back, and this in itself can be argued to bring stability and quality. 4.3 Are specialized universities and degrees the solution to narrowing this gap?

4.3.1 Intercultural and Contextual Education: University Level

As stated in the Background section, the majority of the higher education system in Bolivia seems to cater to upper-middle class urban students and thus provides only a slightly intercultural experience, as well as only minimal contextualized education for non-urban or indigenous students. Also stated in the Background, in 1962 there were only two universities in Bolivia that offered a degree related to a rural livelihood. Even though there are far more universities that offer such degrees today, often they do not involve the same ‘contextualized learning’ that is more prevalent in primary and secondary systems. As more indigenous populations began attending these universities and receiving formal education in urban areas, it was recognized that local or indigenous knowledge amongst graduates was diminishing. As a result, universities that were contextually specialized were developed, like the indigenous UNIBOL universities. However, the cause and solution to the gap between non-indigenous and indigenous university degree rates continues to be debated.

4.3.2 Specialized Universities for Indigenous & Rural Populations

There is a debate as to whether the autonomous, self-governed, specifically indigenous universities create a better environment for sustainable development, or whether it is best to have indigenous-targeted programs situated within large, urban public universities like UMSA. This debate is similar to a debate in the US between the value of a culturally contextualized education in a private school (for example, a Somali medical institution), and the value of culturally contextualized programs within larger public universities (for example, public medical programs that also train in Hmong and Somali traditional medicine). Often, for students who come from rural areas, affordability and accessibility become the determining factor in choice of institution.

As mentioned in the Background, Sarah Mechtenberg (2013) outlines that the UAC-CP was founded by Sr. Nolan in the rural Nor Yungas area after extensive conversations with the community regarding the lack of employment options for high school graduates and possible solutions to poverty in the community. It was argued that an affordable, local institution that would create professionals in the areas of rural livelihoods could be the answer to these problems. Universities catering to rural, indigenous youth like the UAC-CP offer an increased level of quality because of their ability to provide more personalized attention and, specifically in the case of the UAC-CP, it offers pre-university training to get students who are behind after secondary graduation a chance to reach the level of their peers before starting their degree program. Although a fee is charged to students, all students’ tuition is highly subsidized by funding that the UAC-CP receives. The full cost of tuition, food, and housing is about $2,000 USD per year, but the maximum a student pays is $900 USD per year. In addition, many students receive scholarships to help pay this remaining amount. These factors increase

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education quality, decrease discrimination based on family background and income levels, and decrease dropout rates. Institutions like the UAC-CP are providing higher education opportunities to rural students so that they can become professionals without losing sight of their desire to serve the rural populations. In fact, the UAC-CP draws a fair number of students from the urban area as well, because of interest in getting a hands-on education in a setting where lessons can be directly applied in the campus’ coffee fields, pig pens, and by performing public health visits to homes and teaching in schools in the neighboring communities.

4.3.3 Specialized Degrees for Indigenous & Rural Populations

Several universities have begun to provide a curriculum to rural areas that is relevant to rural indigenous livelihoods, such as agronomy, nursing, and teaching. Many young people cannot afford to move away from home to go to school, and of those who can, many prefer not to. Thus, new universities catering specifically to indigenous populations have been created in recent decades, offering locally contextualized degrees. Although there are still challenges in how to completely incorporate indigenous languages and knowledge into modernized curricula, these institutions have been successful in training professionals who are expert in both traditional and modern knowledge. University representatives say they “want to contribute to the creation of jobs in rural communities so residents do not have to move to the cities for work” (Bollag, 2006, p.5). When he created the UNIBOL indigenous universities, President Morales stated that their purpose was to “fight against the exodus [of] young people from the countryside to the cities” (Goddard, 2010, p.2). He continued by stating, “Nowadays, getting a bachelor’s degree should not be a luxury [and] it is necessary for all young Bolivians to have access to higher education” (Goddard, p.2).

However, a question is currently arising surrounding the effectiveness of the degrees being awarded. “Should they train students in fields such as agriculture that may benefit their communities, or fields such as computer science and business” that might be in more demand in growing sectors of urban areas? (Campbell, 2006, p.2). The five livelihoods-related degrees at the UAC-CP are very effective at training students to lead and develop their rural communities, but it is questioned whether rural institutions should offer more degree options that would allow for a wider breadth of job opportunities. There are some, like Carlos Viteri who specializes in indigenous education at the Inter-American Development Bank, who hope that “a more diverse curriculum becomes a bigger priority” (Campbell, p.3). Students themselves are concerned with giving back to their communities and maintaining their cultural heritage, but they are also concerned with job availability and compensation. With increased coverage of internet services in rural areas, there is hope that job sectors with the most growth will soon be accessible from rural areas. There is also hope that traditional ways can be conserved while also providing for community needs and providing sustainable livelihoods. Demanding to be part of the modern educational system and society was the intention of the parents mentioned previously, who wanted their indigenous children not to be taught in an indigenous language but to be taught in Spanish so that they would not be “going backwards” (Delany-Barmann, 2010, p.194). The parents were willing to abandon their own familial identity so that their children would be able to eventually “become more completely integrated and consumed into modern, urban, and European culture” (Reid, 2008, p.140). Lazar (2010) has studied civic participation as a result of schooling, and believes that expectations such as this

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only reinforce the belief that education is meant to homogenize a population, instead of educating a population about its own diversity. Instead of encouraging creativity and open-mindedness, he believes, this turns education into something more akin to Paulo Freire’s critique of education as banking, and simply depositing information. Lazar believes that negating multiculturalism and interculturalism creates passive citizens. However, Lazar studied school populations in Bolivia and believes that because of traditions like hora civica, where students are asked to put on performances and take pride in the history of their country, Bolivian students graduate as active, outspoken citizens. Lazar (2010) quotes Henry Giroux when he says, “education is reduced to training when it does not seek to extend democracy" (p.183). A true democracy is a system wherein all people have equal input and power regarding issues of that nation, and have the ability to choose their own lifestyle and life path. Therefore, the students and families of Bolivia, whether they are rural or urban, indigenous or non-indigenous, should have the right to choose the type of education, the type of school, and the type of degree they wish to receive. Even though the current selection of degrees within rural universities is focused primarily on rural livelihoods, it could be argued that as the prevalence of these types of universities grow, so should the degree options.

5. DISCUSSION AND DATA ANALYSIS

5.1 Current Situation of Supply & Demand for Higher Education in Rural Areas

There are currently very few universities located in the rural area of Bolivia, and only one in the rural Nor Yungas province of Bolivia: the UAC-CP. When interviewing graduates and meeting their families throughout the Department of La Paz, I was struck by the answer that I often received when asking whether there was a nearby university for secondary graduates. Most often, the answer was no; the student would likely travel to the city of La Paz for college if they wanted to continue their education. Therefore, many youth in rural areas are aware that their family does not have the resources to send them to university and, as a result, they don’t see the need to finish secondary school, and sometimes even primary school. Often the student, even if they are a high school graduate, continues working to support the family farm or commercial business. Many people in the Nor Yungas region are both subsistence and market farmers, growing multiple crops at a time including vegetables like yucca and racacha, fruit like banana and citrus, as well as other crops like coca and coffee. There are also many farmers who raise animals such as chickens, pigs, and cows. It is not uncommon for families to work 12-hour days in the extreme heat and on steep mountainsides in order to prepare fields, plant seeds, harvest crops, and tend to animals. Sometimes select members of the family travel to La Paz to sell their goods, but many sell their goods in the local area. This type of family-run business has continued for centuries in Bolivia, often with practices unchanged. In some ways, these unchanging practices are integral to the cultural survival of each unique region, but in other ways these practices are economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. There is little opportunity for the younger generations of production-based families to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills, since they are expected to spend much of their childhood working to support the family business. Pesticide overuse, slash-and-burn practices, poor livestock management practices, water contamination, and soil infertility are prevalent because farmers’ income is often seen as dependent upon this environmental

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exploitation. With the help of community members who have been trained in sustainable development practices, communities are starting to lead their own change. However, in many rural villages, this type of leadership, which balances community knowledge with modern development knowledge, is still relatively scarce.

5.2 Current Existing Responses to Demand for Higher Education in Rural Areas

As mentioned in the background section, there are a few rural and indigenous-specific universities in existence that are training rural adults in the livelihoods areas of their regions. This has begun to provide trained leadership within small towns that previously did not have this type of leadership. For example, Freddy Villca Huanaco, who graduated from the Education program at the UAC-CP in 2010, has worked with the residents of his hometown of Charazani, as well as the many surrounding smaller communities, to develop an early-warning system for severe weather due to climate change. They have combined knowledge of improved structures for protecting livestock and crop management with knowledge in information technology and solar energy to build a system that communicates predictions of weather events to the communities and protects against damage from weather events. Without Freddy’s training in education techniques, development methods, and computer systems to compliment his extensive knowledge of the greater Charazani community, this would not have been possible. The UAC-CP had a total of 714 students enrolled in the first semester of 2012 as well as a total of 423 titulados (graduates), in addition to many people who had finished their classes but had not yet defended their theses who are called egresados (CPF, 2012, p.2). Considering that there is 68% gross enrollment and 56% net enrollment in secondary schools in the Department of La Paz, there are still a lot more students who could be served (INE, 2011a). Bolivia’s rural areas are often vast and separated from the urban area by narrow and treacherous dirt mountain roads. The reach of the few rural universities is often limited, but they are beginning to provide opportunities to students who otherwise would not be able to achieve higher education. The success of these universities can often be seen in the accomplishments of their graduates, depicted in high employment rates of UAC-CP graduates as well as improvements in income measurements and multidimensional measurements of poverty between UAC-CP graduates and their parents.

5.3 UAC-CP Graduate Survey of 2012-2013

Part of the case study involved the practicum work that I was completing for my host organization in the form of a survey of graduates of the UAC-CP. It should be noted that this survey was first developed by Aara Johnson in 2010 as part of her master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and in collaboration with Sarah Mechtenberg, the Carmen Pampa Fund’s director of advancement. In October 2012, Sarah and I consulted key UAC-CP donors such as USAID (ACDI-VOCA of Bolivia) and Cross International during the final revision of the survey. During the revision, the phrasing and terminology on some existing questions was edited and clarified using the donors’ knowledge of both survey language and cultural context. In addition, there were some new questions added to the survey, such as the question about student participation in specific donor-funded programs like the UAC-CP food cooperative program. Other new questions came as a result of wanting to measure the number of sustainable development pillars (social, economic,

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environmental) that graduates were supporting in their current work. Still other questions were formed from a desire to compare national measurements of poverty in Bolivia with levels of poverty amongst graduates in order to capture the changes that were occurring because of higher education in this rural area. There are 88 questions on the survey and seven sections which each focused on different topics: basic information, childhood household, current household, UAC-CP experience, current employment, additional education, and supporting the UAC-CP. The survey results are not meant to be scientifically representative of the entire population of graduates. The sampling method, both purposive and snowball, was described in the Methods section and does not constitute a scientifically random sample. Both titulados (people who had finished their classes, defended their thesis, and earned their degree) and egresados (people who had only finished their classes and had not yet defended their thesis) were surveyed. However, the only statistical report available from the UAC-CP database at the time that this paper was written was a report on titulados, not egresados, so the survey results can only be compared to this population. There were 180 titulados and egresados surveyed, and although an official count of total population of egresados was unavailable at the time of this paper, there was a total population of 423 titulados as of March 2013. There are differences between the survey population and the total population, which could cause misrepresentation of the graduate population if these differences are not acknowledged. There were 46 people (26% of respondents) who answered the survey in electronic form and 134 (74%) who answered it in paper form. In the total population of titulados, 48% are female, whereas only 33% of the survey respondents were female (including 20% female/80% male respondents within the electronic survey). Therefore, women are underrepresented in the survey data, as seen in Table 1. The average age in the survey population is 31, while the average age in the titulados population is 33. In addition, there were differences in the percentage of people from each degree program between the survey population and the entire titulados population. Most notably, there were 18% fewer representatives of the Nursing program in the survey than in the total population, and there were 23% more representatives of the Agronomy program. Therefore, the survey data is ‘light’ on Nursing voices and ‘heavy’ on Agronomy voices. I ask that the reader keeps in mind these considerations during the following data analysis.

5.4 Discussion Questions

The data collected from the survey allowed analysis on many topics. Using the survey data, informal interviews, and other resources as supportive evidence, the two areas of discussion

Table 1:

Descriptive Statistics of Survey

Survey

(n=180) Total Pop.

(n=423)

# % # %

Age:

Range 23-47 - 23-63 -

Age:

Average 31 - 33 -

Males 120 67 220 52

Females 60 33 203 48

Agronomy 99 55 136 32

Education 25 14 91 22

Nursing 18 10 120 28

Tourism 2 1 8 2

Veterinary 35 20 68 16

Note: The Survey population is made up of

both titulados and egresados, whereas the

Total Population is made up of only

titulados.

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addressed in this case study are: 1) Are the degrees obtained by UAC-CP graduates effective in terms of furthering UAC-CP’s mission to train students to serve rural communities? and 2) Do contextual, indigenous-oriented postsecondary institutions improve the odds that rural indigenous populations can escape poverty?

5.5 Question 1: Are the degrees obtained by UAC-CP graduates effective in terms of furthering UAC-CP’s mission to train students to serve rural communities?

5.5.1 Rural & Urban Movement & Employment

The mission of the UAC-CP is to train professionals to support the development of the rural area. In total, 69% of graduates are currently living in the rural area, and of the 91% of survey respondents that were currently employed, 74% are working in the rural area. This shows that graduates are supporting the rural area, but another way the survey data can measure the outcome of this mission is to compare the movement between graduates’ childhood home, current home, and current workplace. Sixty-two percent of graduates spent the years before age 18 in the rural area and 38% were in the urban area of La Paz and El Alto. However, some of these urban students decided to work in the rural area after graduation. Of the students who originated from the urban area, 22% returned to the urban area for work after completing courses in the rural area, and 17% transitioned to the rural area to work. A visual difference between childhood provinces of graduates and current provinces of graduates can be seen in the maps in Appendix B (Figures 1 and 2). Comparing these maps, it is clear that there are more graduates who currently work in the rural provinces of Nor Yungas and Sud Yungas than there were who lived in these provinces during childhood, and there are currently fewer graduates working in the urban province of Murillo than in there were who lived there during childhood. Of all of the movement measured (childhood to current home, childhood to current workplace, and current home to current workplace), 59% of the movements were rural to rural, 21% were urban to urban, 14% were urban to rural, and 6% were rural to urban. Therefore, there were only 6% of students who were directly opposing the mission of the UAC-CP and moving from the rural area to urban area. These numbers may be a result of uncontrollable factors like limited job opportunity in the urban area or a result of the purposeful choices and education of graduates. Another point of insight into this discussion comes from a survey question that asked the graduates whether their job supports the rural region, the urban region, or both regions. Of the 91% of graduates who are currently employed, 59% answered that their job supports only the rural region, 9% only the urban region, and 32% both regions. This means that 91% of employed graduates thought their job was supporting the rural region in some way, which means that even if they work in the urban region, their work may help rural communities. For example, there are quite a few graduates who work in the urban area at microfinance organizations who have loan clients who are from the rural region. Many of these graduates actually spend a small percentage of their work week in the rural area providing hands-on agricultural business consulting, even though they are officially stationed in the urban area. In the cases where graduates’ jobs span multiple urban and rural areas, this could mean that the UAC-CP model is preparing students who are adaptive and competitive, but who are also accomplishing the mission of serving the rural poor.

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5.5.2 Rural Employment within Livelihoods Degree Field

Another way to determine whether the degrees obtained by graduates are effective in accomplishing the mission of the UAC-CP is to look at how many people are employed in the same field as their training. When graduates’ area of study was compared with their current job title and place of work, it appears as if most graduates are working in their field. 85% of Education graduates are working as an educator of some sort, whether it is in school or university or as an educator through a microfinance or development agency. There are about 81% of Nursing graduates working either as a nurse or as a health educator for the government or a microfinance organization. Approximately 94% of Agronomy graduates are working in an agriculture-related position with a research organization, the government, as consultants, or at an educational instruction. However, within that 94%, 54% work in microfinance organizations. It can be assumed that they were hired because of their ability to provide expertise in agronomy to their loan clients, so it is accurate to assume 94% are employed in their field, at least partially. A similar division is present within the population of Veterinary Science graduates: 96% are employed within their field, but of that 96%, 26% work in microfinance organizations. There was one Rural Tourism graduate who answered this survey question and he was not employed in his field, thus technically 0% of Rural Tourism graduates surveyed were employed in their field. This is probably not an accurate reflection of the pool of Rural Tourism graduates, and it is also probably reflecting the fact that this is the newest degree at the UAC-CP and has few graduates so far. On average, excluding the Rural Tourism outlier, graduates are employed in the same field as their degree about 89% of the time. Since there are such high rates of employment within the same field as graduates’ area of study, it seems that the degree programs are appropriately preparing students for work. The statistics for the number of people with undergraduate-level degrees in Bolivia who are employed in their field of study are not readily available, but some statistics for the United States are available. A 2012 report from Rutgers University surveyed 444 university graduates and found that 24% were working in a job that was not at all related to their degree. This means that only 76% of graduates are employed in a field that is at least slightly related to their degree. Since the U.S. is considered a developed nation and Bolivia is considered a developing nation, it is significant that the UAC-CP’s rate of graduates employed in their field is higher, at 89%, than the U.S. average. Of course, there are many factors that contribute to this difference, including a wider variety of degree and employment options in the U.S. and this comparison cannot conclude success or failure of the UAC-CP. But the high UAC-CP rate alone shows that the UAC-CP is indeed accomplishing its mission to provide specialized training that will allow graduates to obtain employment in their degree area.

5.5.3 Job Satisfaction as Related to Rural Livelihoods

By looking at job satisfaction, it can be interpreted whether graduates are obtaining the jobs that they expected to get with their degrees; jobs that support rural livelihoods. First of all, 95% of survey respondents said they had been employed within the last year and 91% said they were currently employed. Out of the people who were currently working and who answered the question about job satisfaction (150 respondents), 40% said they were very satisfied, 45% were satisfied, 9% were somewhat satisfied, 3% were neutral, and a total of 3% were some level of dissatisfied with their job. In total, 94% were at least somewhat satisfied with their job. In an

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open-ended question that asked the person to identify why they marked this level job satisfaction, 61%3 of the 94 people who were at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs gave a long answer that it was because they were capacitating needy people, that they were serving the rural region, or that they were using what they learned at the UAC-CP. This means that the people who commit to obtaining a degree at the UAC-CP are invested in the mission of the UAC-CP to serve the rural poor and evaluate the success of their jobs based on this same mission. Of the 30 people who expressed some sort of dissatisfaction with their jobs in this question, 60%4 said it was because they were not working in the area of their degree or because they could not do what they wanted with their degree. This means that the people who expected to be able to find work in their field or a certain type of work in their field were not able to. It is unclear whether this is out of reasonable or unreasonable expectations. It should also be noted that I received many informal comments from graduates that they were in fact using the skills that they had learned or were working in their field, but not in the way or in the job that they had hoped. Most of the time, people made comments like this when they felt removed from the hands-on community organizing work that they would ideally like to do, and when they were employed by an institution that kept them somewhat removed from this. It seemed to be a common sacrifice made by graduates; most secure, well-paying jobs were office jobs which involved little to no work in the field. Since graduates have high employment rates, high job satisfaction rates, high degree-to-employment correspondence, and since their movement is highly towards or within the rural area, it seems safe to conclude that the current UAC-CP degree programs are creating graduates who are able to be highly productive in service to the rural area.

5.5.4 Supporting of Rural Livelihoods via Professional Consultation

Because of higher education institutions like the UAC-CP, higher education is more accessible and the ways in which people are earning livings in the rural areas are also changing. While graduates are not often manually working on the family farm like their parents’ generation, it is obvious that they still value their communities, are passionate about supporting their development, and are able to do this using the degrees they earn. Some are working in microfinance institutions and giving loans as well as technical agricultural advice to the community members who still work the land and who they greatly respect. In fact, their loyalty to directly improving their communities is shown through the disappointment that I heard expressed by many graduates that they are not able to work full-time or at all with their community directly, but that they are slightly removed. They are able to be agents of development by connecting farmers to the knowledge and resources that they need, but they are not “in the trenches”, helping to lead, organize, and advance the community at a grassroots level. However, it is interesting to see how many graduates are supporting the same industry from which their parents made their livings during their childhood. About 47% (37/79) of Agronomy graduates who were surveyed had one or both parents who worked in agriculture, mostly as farmers. It is not uncommon for a child to be interested in a similar career path as their parent(s),

3 Thirty-five respondents answered that they were satisfied because they were capacitating and helping the neediest of their community members, 11 answered that it was because they were serving the rural region, and 11 said it was because they were using what they learned at the UAC-CP, totaling 61 out of 94 people (61%). 4 Twelve respondents answered that they were dissatisfied because they were not working in their field and six answered that it was because they could not do what they wanted with their degree, totaling 18 out of 30 (60%).

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but it is unique that the graduates are committed to developing rural livelihoods by obtaining degrees and jobs that can help improve the environmental and economic sustainability of these livelihoods. They are part of a generation wherein formal knowledge and training is becoming as valued as indigenous knowledge, and the two paired together are a powerful force in development. Reyes-García (2010) states that “in indigenous societies local environmental [i.e. indigenous/contextual] knowledge produces positive returns to the individual (Mcdade et al., 2007; Reyes-García et al., 2007, 2008) in the same way that in Western societies schooling and the skills and behaviors learned in school do (Bonjour et al., 2003; Wolfe and Haveman, 2001; Wolfe and Zuvekas, 1997)” (pp.305-306). These two worlds are beginning to merge in rural Bolivia and are bringing a very sustainable form of development: community-led.

5.5.5 Community Support for the Continuation of Rural Livelihoods-Based Degrees

The fact that many of the other rural universities offer the same rural livelihoods-based degrees as the UAC-CP and not more urban degrees like information technology or business management shows that there is a specific need that has been seen and is being addressed by all of these universities. However, it was mentioned in the Background section that parents of indigenous affiliation often see it as ‘going backwards’ to teach a primary student in their indigenous language and not in Spanish, a language which they see as pertinent to their well-rounded adjustment. It would be a reasonable inference to then assume that these same parents would prefer that their students have the option to study in a plethora of degree options that would give them access to the world beyond the rural area. However, since higher education in the rural area is relatively new and because they want to offer training that empowers the rural area, it seems that rural universities are focusing on addressing the most pertinent local needs first before they consider developing degree programs that would address issues that are currently more pertinent outside of the rural area. It is important for smaller rural universities like the UAC-CP that do not have nearly as many funding resources as large urban universities to make improvements to the programs that they already have before adding new programs. The question of whether a rural education should provide the option to study an ‘urban’ degree will change as more rural people obtain university degrees, as increased availability of high-speed internet and cell phone service occurs, as demand for more technological and commercial development rises, and as the benefits of a university education are seen by more families. In actuality, parents and community members seem to have a large positive influence on whether students enroll in university. Out of the 144 people who answered the survey question asking for the source of their inspiration to attend university, 64% said that it came from their family, friends, the local church, or other community members. This statistic, combined with the fact that 6% of UAC-CP graduates had parents with a university degree and 37% of UAC-CP graduates had other members of their family who had attended university, which will be discussed later, seems to predict that the next generation of rural parents will have an increased positive view of higher education and will probably have more university degrees than the previous generation. More parents will encourage their sons and daughters to continue their education through secondary school and on to university. This influence and subsequent increase in education attainment might cause a sophistication of rural businesses and agricultural producers which will require the employment of even more university graduates in order to maintain their new level of quality and development. Reed-Danahay (1987) studied the fact that parental and familial attitudes towards education can have a large influence on their children’s

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attitudes towards education and their children’s educational choices, especially in rural areas. In general, it is believed in Bolivia that a person’s will is not completely their own; that their community has at least partial control and say in their decisions. This assumption of consultation with community can also be said to be driving factor in the educational and employment decisions of the younger generation. In a survey question that asked about the amount of moral support to attend university that the graduate received from family and friends, 59% said they received an extremely high level of moral support and 12% said they received a lot of support. These statistics are obviously a bit biased because they only poll parents of university attendees, not of non-attendees, but it is encouraging to realize that there is extensive parental and community support of higher education.

5.6 Question 2: Do contextual, indigenous-oriented postsecondary institutions improve the odds that rural indigenous populations can escape poverty?

The previous discussion question proved that the UAC-CP is preparing students to serve the rural area, but the UAC-CP is also preparing students to serve the majority of the rural population that identifies as indigenous. This is important because the rural populations are about 69-72% indigenous and because the populations that are both rural and indigenous have been proven to have higher poverty rates than non-indigenous rural populations, indigenous urban populations, or non-indigenous urban populations. This means that UAC-CP graduates are helping to reduce poverty in rural areas by serving this population. In addition, many UAC-CP graduates themselves identify as indigenous and/or are living or working in the rural area, so that the UAC-CP is directly reducing poverty in poor rural indigenous populations by reducing poverty levels of its graduates.

5.6.1 A New Definition of ‘Indigenous’ in the Rural & Urban Contexts

In Bolivia, 72% of the rural population speaks an indigenous language versus only 36% of the urban population, therefore it could be said that service to the rural population is often equivalent to service to the indigenous population and vice versa (World, 2005). However, at the same time that access to higher education in rural areas is increasing, the definition of what it means to be a rural, indigenous person in Bolivia is changing. It was mentioned in the Literature Review that the very definition of ‘indigenous’ in Bolivia is changing and is debated. ‘Indigenous’ used to be defined as someone who only spoke an indigenous language, but as graduate Manuel Gonzales of Viacha stated, there are very few people anymore who only speak an indigenous language (M. Gonzales, personal communication, January 22, 2013). In addition, author Alison Spedding (2008) who has done research in Bolivia for many years, reports that there were many people who left their rural haciendas in 1953 because of the agrarian reform and whose families now live in the urban area and affiliate themselves with an indigenous group but do not speak an indigenous language. For these reasons, the national census has started to ask for self-reported affiliation with indigenous groups as well as languages spoken.

5.6.2 Many UAC-CP Graduates Identify as Indigenous

In the UAC-CP graduate survey, question regarding both language and affiliation were asked. Of the 173 graduates who answered the question about whether they affiliated themselves with an indigenous group, the largest group indicated was Aymará, with 46% of the respondents

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indicating in the affirmative. In total, 78% of graduates affiliated themselves with an indigenous group5, followed by 17% who marked ‘other’ and wrote in that they identified as “Mestizo, Spanish, Bolivian, or Intercultural,” 3% said they did not identify as anything, and 2% identified as Afroboliviano. Of the 178 people who answered the question about indigenous and other languages spoken, 91% said Spanish was their most important or primary language and 9% reported an indigenous language6. Of the 120 people who reported a second or second-most-important language, 69% reported an indigenous language7, 18% reported English, 12% Spanish, and 1% reported a foreign language. There were also 22 people who reported a third language, 45% of whom reported an indigenous language8, 36% reported English, 14% foreign, and 5% Spanish. It is significant that 135 out of 173 people (78%) of graduates affiliated themselves with an indigenous group, and that a total of 109 out of 178 people (61%) reported that they spoke an indigenous language as their first, second, or third most important language. It is interesting that there is a 17% gap between these groups, meaning that roughly 17% identify with an indigenous group but do not speak an indigenous language. This confirms Alison Spedding’s statement, mentioned previously. Despite whether a person’s commitment identification with an indigenous community comes from language, family, or location, it is clear that this defines a vast majority of the UAC-CP graduates. Considering the survey results that showed that 91% of graduates reported that their job was serving the rural area in some manner and that 74% were actually working in the rural area, this shows that the livelihoods degrees that the UAC-CP offers, which are contextualized to the realities of the rural area, are appropriate and suitable for the mission of reducing rural poverty by increasing employment rates and creating sustainable community-led development.

5.6.3 Measuring Poverty & Sustainability via the Graduate Survey

One of the goals of the survey was to find out whether the UAC-CP was accomplishing its mission to train graduates in livelihoods careers that would not only help them create sustainable community development but also help raise their own families out of poverty. In order to answer this question, the survey included questions about employment status, income levels of parents during childhood, and current income levels of graduates. It also incorporated questions that measured levels of poverty in the graduates’ childhood and levels of current poverty. I modeled these questions after 2012 national census questions which measured Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) so that UAC-CP levels could be compared with national levels. The UBN includes four categories: housing, basic services, education, and health, and there are multiple indicators within these categories. The indicators that were measured through survey questions included: the number of years of schooling, the materials used in household floors, the source of household drinking water, and the type of cooking fuel. In order to look at consumption-based wealth, a question about household assets was also included in the survey. Rights-based and capabilities-based measures were incorporated through measurement of health, education, and income. However, measurements such as “employment quality, empowerment, physical safety, dignity and self-respect, [and] meaning and value” that were incorporated into the 2009 Bolivian constitution have not yet been incorporated into the census and therefore were not incorporated explicitly into the survey (Alkire, 2009, p.19). However, some of the open-ended questions on

5 78% = 46% Aymará, 12% Chiquitano, 11% Quechua, 5% Leco, 2% Guaraní, 1% Trinitario, 1% Kallawaya. 6 9% = 7% Aymará, 2% Quechua. 7 69% = 54% Aymará, 15% Quechua. 8 45% = 36% Aymará, 9% Quechua.

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the survey as well as the informal interviews provided platforms where these measures were indeed expressed.

5.6.4 Income & Employment Status as Measures of Poverty

Income and employment status measures are a straightforward technique to see the changes in poverty alleviation that have occurred between the graduates’ generation and their parents’ generation. There are distinct differences between income levels of UAC-CP graduates and their parents, 93% of whom did not have a university education. The survey asked the graduate to report each of his/her parents’ monthly income range during the time when the graduate was under 18 years of age, and the survey also asked the graduate’s current monthly income range. Overall, there was a more than 300% increase between generations, with a 320% increase from mothers to female graduates and a 305% increase from fathers to male graduates. Part of this increase is due to differences in occupation and inflation over time, however not all of the increase can be attributed to these factors. Graduates are earning more because their degrees are not only providing them with the tools necessary to obtain jobs and serve the rural area, but their jobs pay more than jobs that don’t require a university degree. They are able to reduce poverty within their own families and it can be inferred (and confirmed by site visits) that the jobs are often positions of leadership within the community that have not only helped reduce graduate poverty but are also helping to increase productivity and reduce poverty in the community. Previously it was noted that 95% of graduates had been employed in the last year at the time of the survey and 91% were currently employed. This, combined with the 300% increase in monthly income between parents of graduates and graduates, is a strong indicator that some poverty relief has occurred due to the attainment of UAC-CP degrees. Another survey question that asked about full- or part-time employment, 82% (of 142 respondents) indicated that they were employed full time or as much as necessary to make a living. However, 8% indicated that they were employed less than full time and 10% indicated that they were employed at half time or less. In addition, there are many graduates who are independent consultants or who own their own business, and often their monthly income fluctuates significantly. Even though they might have indicated that they were employed as much as necessary on the survey, there still may be months when they have little to no income, which causes stress in the household. It is a bit concerning that 18% of 142 respondents are not employed as much as they need to be. However, it is obvious that the global economic downturn that has affected so many countries and families has also touched Bolivia. It is also a bit more encouraging that only 9% of respondents stated that they are not working at all right now and that only 5% had not been employed at all in the last year. This combined with the increase of income between the parental and graduate generations is very encouraging.

5.6.5 Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: A Caveat

The HDI measure of poverty is based on the capabilities approach to measuring human development. It calculates the average of four indicators within three dimensions to arrive at one number between zero and one, which is then categorized into quartiles defining the level of human development: very high, high, medium, and low (UNDP, 2013c). The UBN measure used by Bolivia calculates the average of fourteen indicators within four dimensions to arrive at one number between negative one and one which is then categorized into quintiles defining the

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level of poverty: satisfied needs, threshold of poverty, moderate poverty, poverty, and extreme poverty (INE, 2004). If a personal or household measurement falls into one of the first two quintiles, they are categorized as ‘not deprived’ and if they fall into one of the last three quintiles, they are categorized as ‘deprived.’ The HDI and UBN measurements do have critiques since they cannot possibly capture all of the factors that could be attributed towards a person’s or a country’s status of development or well-being. They are not able to measure capabilities like the ability to achieve happiness, safety, freedom, and opportunity, but hopefully they help give us a better picture so we can start to make those inferences. The UBN process of grouping everyone into the two groups of ‘not deprived’ and ‘deprived’ is very specific but can also bring into question the calculations. An adult can be categorized as ‘not deprived’ if they have finished primary school, but this might not be enough to bring them happiness, safety, freedom, or opportunity. In addition, this definition of deprivation is different from a definition of empowerment which would strive for improvement, not just attainment of non-poverty. The UBN measures of UAC-CP graduates were measured so that their levels could be compared with national levels, but there were many opportunities in long-answer questions as well as the informal interview following the survey where the graduate could express aspects of their experience that could not be encompassed in these measures.

5.6.6 UBN: Specific Definitions of Deprivation & Poverty

The five UBN indicators included in five survey questions each have a unique measure of what constitutes ‘deprived’ versus ‘not deprived.’ Under the UBN measure, a household is considered deprived if a parent has not completed five years of schooling, which equals completion of primary school in Bolivia. The household is considered deprived if their drinking water comes from an unsafe, “unimproved” or unreliable/unsustainable source, such as a lake, a river, an unprotected well or spring, or a tanker truck or vendor. Safe water sources include public piped systems, household connections, a protected dug well or borehole, or rainwater. The household is considered deprived if the floors are made of dirt or adobe, and is not considered deprived if they are made of anything else (cement, ceramic, wood, etc.). If a household uses dung, wood, or charcoal to cook, it is considered deprived. If their cooking fuel is in the form of a gas tank, electricity, solar energy, or firewood, they are not considered deprived. A household is considered deprived if they do not own more than one of these assets: a radio, a television, a computer, internet service, or a cellular and/or landline phone. According to these distinctions, changes between the graduates’ childhood and current homes according to UBN-defined deprivation are as follows.

5.6.7 UBN: Education

As a precursor to these UBN measurements, it is important to remember that 38% of households (67/180) during the alumni's childhood were urban and 62% (113/180) were rural. Of the urban households, 15%9 had one parent who had not completed primary school and was therefore considered deprived. In addition, 6% (4/61) of urban households had two parents who were considered deprived, which comes to a total of 21% (13/61) of urban households that had at least one deprived parent. Of the rural households, 19% (21/111 who answered both questions) had

9 9/61, because 61 of the 67 respondents answered both the location question and the education question

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Table 2:

Parental Educational “Deprivation” by Area

Area

0 parents

deprived

1 parent

deprived

2 parents

deprived

At least 1

parent

deprived

Urban (n=61) 79% 15% 6% 21%

Rural (n=111) 58% 19% 23% 42%

Total (n=172) 65% 18% 17% 35%

one parent who was deprived, 23% (26/111) had two parents who were deprived, for a total of 42% (47/111) of rural households with at least one deprived parent. The difference of 21% between the 42% rural deprivation and the 21% urban deprivation is significant, and supports the idea that rural families have less access to education, even primary education. The total average percentage of all households with at least 1 educationally deprived parent was 35%. (See Table 2.) Comparing these rates with the most recent national statistics from Bolivia’s National Institute of Statistics (INE)10, the 2001 rate of educational deprivation was 52% for all of Bolivia and 49% for the Department of La Paz (INE, 2001b). Thus, rates of educational deprivation for UAC-CP parents were on average 17 percentage points less than the national average and 14 percentage points less than the Departmental average. In order to compare national statistics broken down by gender and location to UAC-CP statistics, it was necessary to look at INE statistics on total number of years of education. The national average number of years of education attained by males was 8.24 years and by women was 6.65 years (INE, 2001a). Both of these numbers indicate completion of primary school (through year six, which encompasses kindergarten through grade five). For rural areas, the statistic was 5.18 years completed for men and 3.14 years completed for women (INE, 2001a). The national numbers indicate completion of kindergarten but the rural numbers do not. This means that on average, most people in Bolivia are not considered deprived educationally, but populations living in rural areas are on average deprived. Since 58% of UAC-CP rural parents indicated non-deprivation, UAC-CP rural parents seem on average less educationally-deprived than the average rural citizen. However, categorizing someone as ‘not deprived’ educationally is not the same as defining them as educationally empowered. While 65% of graduates’ families were not considered deprived educationally, this does not mean that their level of educational attainment allowed them to improve their lifestyle like a higher education degree would allow. Out of the 337 parental education levels recorded, 19 families (6%) had at least one parent who had obtained a higher education degree. If only 6% of graduates’ families had one parent with a higher education degree, that means that 94% of graduates did not live in an educationally empowered household during childhood and did not have parental guidance/experience in their quest towards higher education. However, 43% of graduates (72 out of 169 responses) reported that they were not the first person in their family to obtain a university degree, which means that we can assume that roughly 37% of graduates (43% minus 6%) had siblings or other family members aside from their parents who had obtained a university degree. Assuming that most of these people were siblings, it seems that this shows a dramatic trend in the number of students in this current generation who are achieving higher education even when their parents have not.

10 Most results from the 2012 census are not yet available, as of May 2013.

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5.6.8 UBN: Floors, Fuel, Water, & Assets

Continuing to assess poverty based on the UBN measure, we move to looking at the standard of living category, and the indicators of household floors, cooking fuel, drinking water, and assets in both the graduates’ childhood home and their current home. In their childhood home, of the 180 graduates that were surveyed, 35% of them had homes with dirt or adobe floors and were considered deprived under this indicator. However, in their current homes, only 6% of graduates are considered deprived under this indicator. Compared with the 2001 national census rate of 39% deprivation in the category of inadequate housing materials, graduates were slightly less deprived than average during childhood and are currently far less deprived (INE, 2001b). Comparing usage rates of individual flooring materials, it is notable that UAC-CP childhood usage of dirt floors was much closer to average rural rates while current UAC-CP dirt floor usage rates are closest to average urban rates (INE, 2001d). Also notable is that parquet, wood, cement, ceramic and brick flooring are all more commonly used in urban or more affluent areas, and while UAC-CP childhood averages were closer to rural averages in these flooring materials, the current UAC-CP household usage rates are closer to urban or more affluent averages. Considering the majority of UAC-CP graduates surveyed still live in the rural area, it is interesting that the forms of flooring used are associated with an urban or more affluent location. Very few graduates were considered deprived in childhood according to the drinking water indicator, as only 1.2% obtained water through a tanker truck, a lake, or a river. There were no graduates considered deprived in the drinking water indicator in their current homes. Compared with the 2001 national rate of 58% deprivation in water and sanitation services, graduates were far less deprived than average, both in childhood and in their current households. Looking at the usage rates of the various types of water delivery systems, the childhood and current usage rates of piped water by UAC-CP graduates are much closer to the national and urban averages than they are to the rural averages (INE, 2001e). We know that most of the graduates surveyed lived in the rural areas however, so this indicator most likely reflects their income level rather than their location. The childhood rates of using rainwater as the main water source were much closer to rural averages than urban, but usage rates were actually higher than rural averages. Under the indicator of cooking fuel, 2% of graduates were considered deprived in childhood since they used guano as cooking fuel, but none were considered deprived in their current homes. The 2001 national average for deprivation in energy was 44%, so graduates were far less deprived than average (INE, 2001c). It was also interesting to note that childhood usage rates of wood, propane tanks, and guano were close to rural national rates, and current usage rates for propane tanks and piped natural gas were close to urban national rates. Of the 180 graduates surveyed, 59 (or 33%) indicated that they had one or zero household assets in their childhood home which was considered a level of deprivation. In their current homes, 28 (or 16%) indicated that they had one or zero household assets, so deprivation decreased by 17 percentage points from childhood. Unfortunately, recent statistics on national household assets are not available, but it can be assumed that this decline is partially due to an overall improvement in national asset levels and partially due to the increase in income experienced by the graduates. Overall, graduates are less deprived in the four areas of floors, fuel, water, and assets than in their childhood and are less deprived than national averages, which is a positive indicator for poverty reduction amongst graduates.

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The UAC-CP is not only reducing rates of poverty within the graduate population, but it is also indirectly reducing poverty in indigenous rural populations through the work that is being done by its graduates. This was proven by the evidence from the first discussion and the graduates’ service of the rural and largely indigenous rural area. It is also proven by a survey question which asked how a post-secondary education has allowed the graduate to support their indigenous culture and/or an indigenous population. A total of 70% (126/180) of respondents reported that they support an indigenous culture in at least one way. Thirty-six percent of respondents reported that they support an indigenous population through use of a language, 31% through their knowledge of the traditions and culture, 27% through their knowledge of indigenous livelihoods, and 9% through another method like sharing technical knowledge. It can therefore be concluded that UAC-CP graduates have experienced reduced poverty themselves and they are working to reduce poverty by supporting and providing expertise to rural indigenous populations.

5.6.9 Personal Stories of Challenges, Capabilities & Sustainability

However, these measurements do not tell the stories of graduates like a female Education graduate who lives in a small town 3 hours outside of La Paz and who has not been able to find a job in her field even though she indicated on the survey that she was fully employed. She has been taking odd jobs with friends and works at her sister’s store and restaurant, which leaves her fully employed, but does not realize her capabilities and does not provide a sustainable or secure future for herself or her son. In order to be creating truly sustainable development, the UAC-CP should closely track whether graduates are able to find employment in their field and make program adjustments accordingly, if necessary. The UAC-CP could also provide job search skills and a career resource center for students and graduates. The website for graduates that is currently under construction will be an excellent resource for graduates to connect with other graduates, share resources, and get job announcements. The multidimensional poverty measurements also do not tell the stories of the many Agronomy graduates who work at microfinance organizations, most of whom are very appreciative of their jobs but many of whom feel that they are not using their degree in the way that they had hoped, which is to be directly working with community members in agronomy. Agronomy graduate Carlos Vergara who works at a microfinance organization in the urban area explained to me that microfinance organizations, of which there are many in Bolivia, such as PRODEM, Sartawi, Pro Mujer, and CRECER, readily and quickly hire UAC-CP agronomy graduates because “it is easier to train an agronomist how to be a loan officer than it is to train a loan officer how to be an agronomist” (C. Vergara, personal communication, January 22, 2013). Many of the mathematical and desk skills that are required to be a loan officer are learned in university, and the microfinance organizations want to hire people who are trained in agronomy because many of the loan clients are looking to start or grow their business in agronomy and agriculture. UAC-CP agronomy graduates thus provide valuable consulting to clients on how to successfully run their businesses, resulting in income for the client and in a successful payback of the loan to the microfinance organization. However, if graduates feel disconnected from the community, then their capabilities in the form of employment quality, dignity, happiness, and value are being compromised. Their jobs may provide economic and environmental sustainability to themselves and the community, but social sustainability is lacking.

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Other graduates who have returned to the UAC-CP to teach or to visit have commented that the academic quality and founding values of the college are not at the same level as during their term. A graduate who is currently teaching at the UAC-CP commented, “I see that students are missing a lot of the values instilled by Sister Damon, are very used to asking for everything and not putting in effort. What is needed is improved spelling, speaking, and handwriting, better study and application by students.” A few graduates commented that the UAC-CP should offer specializations within each degree program in addition to more professional certificates, which would help graduates compete at the national level. There were quite a few graduates who felt that sometimes scholarships are not distributed to the students who need them most or who have shown the most ambition. A few questions on the survey asked about whether the graduate learned about gender equity and received psychological support while at the UAC-CP. Sixty percent of respondents said they received a lot of gender equity education, but 40% said they received a little or none. Even though there is a balance of men and women in the current student population as well as the titulado population, one graduate commented that there should be “more support of gender equity and discrimination.” Gender and other types of discrimination are prevalent in Bolivia and the UAC-CP has done workshops on issues like domestic violence in the past, but higher effectiveness and reach could be achieved with incorporation of more of these topics into formal curriculum. Psychological support was given the lowest rating of all the resources and experiences at the UAC-CP. Many of the students who were surveyed attended the UAC-CP prior to the hire of a campus psychologist in 2005. Effective workshops for psychological support were held by the campus psychologist, but unfortunately she has left the UAC-CP and although they have hired a social worker, psychological resources could be formalized and improved. By working to maintain or improve the quality of academics, student accountability, scholarships and scholarship distribution, gender equity and discrimination education, and psychological support, the UAC-CP could support student capabilities and rights, and could create a system of social sustainability. The survey data seem to confirm that the UAC-CP is preparing students who are able to work in and serve both the urban and rural areas, and are thus more universally competitive than one might immediately assume. However, the question arises of whether they have room for improvement in this area. Some current students commented to me that they believe that the UAC-CP could offer more degree options to cater to the students’ many interests and the global demand for people with degrees like computer science and marketing. It is hard to conclude whether the limited number of degrees is affecting graduates’ success, but if it does have any effect, it is minimal. There is a chance that an expansion of degree programs would cause an increase in the number of people who are employed in their field, but it might also subtract from the quality of the existing programs and make the UAC-CP less sustainable. Graduates also made many positive comments about the effect that the UAC-CP had on their personal and professional development. Many commented that there was a lot of moral support and that their self-esteem improved during their time in Carmen Pampa. Others commented on how the UAC-CP gave them the opportunity to succeed when there was no other option for academic or professional advancement in the rural area: “I am thankful to the UAC-CP for opening the door for those from the rural area” and “For me the UAC-CP was one of the very true and only options that I had - and what a great option.” The UAC-CP is indeed responding to a vacancy of opportunity in the rural area, and is accomplishing its mission of alleviating

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poverty. In some ways it is encouraging the development and support of student and community capabilities and sustainability, but there are also areas where improvements could be made.

6. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

This case study looked at the effectiveness of the UAC-CP model of higher education in reducing poverty and supporting indigenous cultures and livelihoods in the rural area of Bolivia. In many ways, the UAC-CP is achieving this mission, but in other ways there are signs that a lack of funding and appropriately-trained teachers is causing a decline in academic quality.

6.1 Future Graduate Surveys

The UAC-CP can take a proactive stance against these changes, partially by paying attention to the messages coming from the graduate community. The UAC-CP already has a grasp on some of these changes because the capable and compassionate staff are dedicated mentors to the students and continue to stay connected with graduates. One of the survey questions pertaining to further education after the UAC-CP asks if the student has earned any professional certificates. There were a large number of people who earned a certificate in higher education, which qualifies a person to teach at the university level. I mentioned this to the Director of the UAC-CP and he said that the leadership staff had in fact discussed this very topic at their previous meeting, as well as the possibility of the UAC-CP offering this certificate program. This suggests that the UAC-CP staff have a good grasp on the undertakings and achievements of their graduates and are responding to those trends. However, in order for these efforts to be effective as the UAC-CP continues to grow rapidly, it is necessary to formalize these systems and consistently track concrete data on graduates. At least one staff member should be responsible for collecting and analyzing future information on graduates. The 2012-2013 survey has been revised according to the results that were obtained, so as to increase the efficiency and accuracy of future surveys. Separate surveys have been designed for three separate populations: titulados who have recently graduated, titulados who graduated one year ago, and egresados who finished their courses one year ago. A manual has been designed that will allow for implementation of these surveys as well as collection and analysis of the data. On the 2012-2013 survey, one graduate commented that “it is good to have this type of survey, so that graduates can support and improve the various plans of the UAC-CP and in this way improve processes for future generations.” Graduate input is invaluable, and a few graduates suggested having formal meetings between graduates and current administration so that ideas could be shared. This would be another way to make sure many current staff members are aware of the concerns, successes, and suggestions of graduates.

6.2 Future Cooperation between the UAC-CP, Graduates, and the Community

It would also increase the overall sustainability of the UAC-CP to have more graduates directly involved in the projects and processes at the UAC-CP. One graduate who was not surveyed returned to the UAC-CP as a professional after working with the German Development Bank in order to help build large organic biodigesters that will help convert the campus’s food, animal, and plant waste into cooking fuel. The systems are quite complicated and massive, but the graduates held an installation workshop and invited students, staff, and community members

46

from the surrounding areas to attend and learn about the process. In this way, the UAC-CP is expanding its knowledge to the community so that environmental protection and sustainability can be an avenue for communication and support between the community and the UAC-CP. The UAC is not just training farmers, veterinarians, nurses, teachers, and tour guides, they are training graduates to be leaders of their communities, a skill that was reported by a few graduates as being lacking in several home towns. They are training people who bring new ideas and new growth and initiatives to the livelihoods processes of their communities. One suggestion in comments section of the survey was that the UAC-CP should “formar organizaciones

productivas” or form organizations that produce things to be sold. The UAC-CP does currently produce coffee and meat, the sale of which benefit the university, but I think this graduate is implying that these processes could be converted into organizations that are formal cooperatives between the UAC-CP and the surrounding communities. The UAC-CP already has a close connection with the Carmen Pampa community and surrounding communities through making health calls with nursing students and through consultation on various initiatives. However, this production initiative would be an excellent way for the UAC-CP to have a formal relationship with graduates and with the community, which would create economic and environmental sustainability and allow for mutual knowledge exchange and support.

6.3 Increased Practical Learning & Level Tuition Rates

Another iteration of this same idea is the fact that a significantly large number of graduates expressed the idea that there should be more practical, hands-on learning as part of the curriculum at the UAC-CP. In an open-ended survey question that asked about the most valuable course or experience of the UAC-CP, there were 247 responses from 156 people. Thirty-seven people stated that practical learning was the most valuable part of their experience, which is significant because no answer options were given. In addition, 26 said that technical courses and project management courses were important, and 24 people said that laboratory or investigatory experience was important to their ability to secure jobs after graduation. In an open-ended question that asked what changes they would make to curriculum, there were 179 respondents and 46 people suggested more practical, hands-on and laboratory learning, 17 people suggested more teachers with practical experience in the curriculum, and 14 people suggested that the curriculum content needed to be more realistic, contextual, and updated. These were the top three answers to this question. Reyes-García (2010) and Taylor et al. (1991) argue that “contextualized learning should also include teaching methods more familiar than textbooks and lectures, such as group workshops, fieldtrips, hands-on experience, and the participation of parents and elders in instruction” (p. 306). Funding is a major obstacle to the UAC-CP’s ability to provide textbooks, let alone off-campus practical learning, but there might be ways in which teachers and directors can begin to provide more on-campus practical learning. Funding struggles within the UAC-CP are a constant burden to be able to subsidize student tuition and to keep program quality constant. In order to remain a model for sustainable development, however, the UAC-CP has to keep tuition levels affordable to poorer populations. As one graduate stated, “Opportunities to access remote populations decreases whenever the cost of study is increased.”

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6.4 Continued Data Analysis & Implications

Because of space limitations, there is not enough room to discuss all of the findings of the graduate survey and the possible implications for policy and program improvements at the UAC-CP or in the broader arena of development. Questions that were asked on the survey but not included here were questions like, How has your degree changed your role in your community?, Which skills did you learn at the UAC-CP and which do you use in your job?, What problems are you solving in your community and what problems are you unable to resolve?, and If you had not studied had the UAC-CP, what do you imagine you would have done? There were also quite a few analyses that I would have liked to perform, like looking at how many the people who identify as indigenous are from rural versus urban areas. Also, it would be interesting to look at the people who felt prepared when they graduated and see which UAC-CP courses and resources they gave high ratings. Another interesting question would be, what proportion of the graduates who were not satisfied with their jobs were recent graduates. It also would be interesting to find out how many of the graduates who identified with an indigenous group but did not speak an indigenous language (17%) were from the urban area and how many were from the rural area. The UAC-CP is blazing a new trail of contextualized rural education in Bolivia, and it has indeed changed many lives through the 20 years that it has been operation. It has allowed its graduates to contribute in new ways to the development of their own communities. It has enhanced the capabilities of so many rural youth who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to grow and create significant change. In the words of one graduate, “I thank all those who dreamed to create the UAC-CP, for I am the reality of that dream.”

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APPENDICES

Appendix A: 2012-2013 UAC-CP Graduate Survey (English translation from Spanish)

Contact Information / Survey Graduates & Alumni of the UAC-CP

Informed consent and information about the survey:

My name is Rachel Satterlee, a graduate student at Brandeis University. I'm doing a survey of

graduates of the UAC-Carmen Pampa to document the quality of education that you received in

college, and to find out what you are doing now that you have your degree. Your participation is

voluntary, and the survey will take about 25 minutes. It has no risk or benefit for you, but it would

help the UAC-Carmen Pampa improve the quality of their programs, and maintain contact with their

graduates. You have the option not to participate, and the option not to answer any question. A

portion of the survey is confidential (sections B and C), but with your permission, data from other

parts, sections A, D, E, F and G, will help the university to use your personal story to encourage

other students and will be used to describe success of the college to the donors. You will also have

the option to register in a contact list to receive information about courses and other opportunities.

If you would like more information about this project, you can contact Dr. Hugh Smeltekop, director

at the UAC-Carmen Pampa, or telephone 719-96681.

This survey has many questions, but will only be given out once. After that, it will be separated into

two different surveys that will be shorter, one for recent graduates and one for people who

graduated more than 1 year prior. Your help is greatly appreciated to answer as many questions

as possible!

1. Do you agree to participate in this survey? � Yes � No

PLEASE DON’T USE ABBREVIATIONS, ONLY WRITE THE FULL NAMES OF INSTITUTIONS

Section A: Basic Information

2. CI (National ID) of the participant: #__ __ __ __ __ __ __

3. CI Suffix (Department): ___ ___

4. What is your complete name? ____________ _________ _____________ _____________

5. What is your gender? � Female � Male

6. What is your birth date? (DD/MM/YYYY) _______/_________/______________

7. Do you belong to any indigenous or Afrobolivian nation or group? Which?

� Quechua � Guaraní � Afrobolivian � Mosetén

� Aymará � Chiquitano � Leco � Trinitario

� Other _______________________________________________________________

8. Which languages do you speak? (Note in order of importance)

1st: _____________________________ 3rd: _____________________________

2nd: _____________________________ 4th: _____________________________

9. What is your email address? __________________________________________

10. What is your phone number? _________________________________ (landline)

_______________________________ (cell)

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11. Where did you live the majority of the time between the ages of 1 and 18 years old?

Community:__________________________ Municipality:____________________________

Province: ____________________________ Department: ____________________________

12. What is your current address?

Community: __________________________ Municipality: ____________________________

Province: ____________________________ Department: ____________________________

13. Between which years did you prepare your thesis? (If you are an egresado, leave blank.)

Between: Year that you began: __________ & Year that you finished: ___________

14. When did you defend your thesis or finish your graduation project/rotating internship? (If

applicable.) If you don’t remember the exact date, please indicate the month and year.

Day: __________________ Month: _______________ Year: ________________

15. What was the title of your thesis/graduation project? (If applicable)

_________________________________________________________________________

16. During the last year, have you worked? ¿Are you working now?

� Yes (to one or both of the questions): Please answer the following questions.

� No: Continue to Section B.

17. Name of the organization/institution (if applicable): _______________________________

18. Type of employment:

� Governmental � NGO/Nonprofit � Private/For-profit

� Consultant or independent � Other

19. Title of position:____________________________________________________________

20. Number of people under your supervision: __________

21. Workplace Address:

Community: _________________________ Municipality: _________________________

Province: ____________________________ Department: ____________________________

Section B: Family History (these responses will be kept confidential)

The following questions are about your childhood family, where you lived when you were

between 1 and 18 years. If you lived in more than one household, answer according to the

location where you stayed the longest.

22. What was the number of people in your home during your childhood?__________ people

23. Indicate the number of persons in each category:

Parents: _________ Siblings (including yourself):_________

Grandparents: _________ Other relatives: ________ Other people: __________

24. Are you the first person in your community to get a college degree?

� Yes � No

25. Are you the first person in your community to get a college degree?

� Yes (Continue to question 27) � No

26. If you are not the first person in your family or your community to get a college degree, which

university(ies) did the other student(s) attend? __________________________________

27. Did your family hope or plan for you to get a college degree after high school?

� Yes � No

28. Where did you get your inspiration to attend college at the UAC-CP?

_________________________________________________________________________

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29. How much moral support did you receive from your family, your friends, or other community

members to attend college? (1 for none, 3 for some, 5 for a lot)

1 2 3 4 5

30. How much financial support did you receive from your family, your friends, or other community

members to attend college? (1 for none, 3 for some, 5 for a lot)

1 2 3 4 5

31. What economic activities are your family members active in? Mark all that correspond and

elaborate if possible:

� Professional work: ____________________________________ Who:

_____________________

� Agricultural work: _____________________________________ Who:

______________________

� Sales from a store: ____________________________________ Who:

______________________

� Sales without a store: __________________________________ Who:

______________________

� Other(s): _________________________________________ ___ Who:

______________________

32. What was the monthly income of your father or male guardian?

� None � 4,001 - 6,000 Bs/month � More than 10,000 Bs

� 1B - 2,000 Bs/month � 6,001 - 8,000 Bs/month

� 2,001 - 4,000 Bs/month � 8,001 - 10,000 Bs/month

33. What was the monthly income of your mother or female guardian?

� None � 4,001 - 6,000 Bs/month � More than 10,000 Bs

� 1B - 2,000 Bs/month � 6,001 - 8,000 Bs/month

� 2,001 - 4,000 Bs/month � 8,001 - 10,000 Bs/month

34. What is the highest level of education that your father or male guardian has completed?

� Has not studied � Secondary � Masters

� Literacy � Technical degree � Doctorate

� Primary � Undergraduate degree

35. What is the highest level of education that your mother or female guardian has completed?

� Has not studied � Secondary � Masters

� Literacy � Technical degree � Doctorate

� Primary � Undergraduate degree

36. What was the material used on the floors of the house?

� Dirt � Wood � Parquet � Ceramic � Cement

� Mosaic � Brick � Other ______________________________________

37. Principally, the water in your home came from…

� piped network? � public tank? � truck/delivery? � lake, lagoon?

� well or pump � borehole? � rain, river, slope, ditch?

38. What was the primary source of cooking fuel for your family?

� Gas, in house/piped � Gas, in tank � Electricity � Solar energy

� Firewood � Guano, dung � Other ____________________________

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39. Your house had…

� a radio? � a television? � a computer? � internet service? � landline or cellular phone

service?

Section C: Information on Current Home (these responses will be kept confidential)

40. How many people are in your home now (at this time)? _____________

41. Indicate the number of persons in each category:

You: _________ Your spouse: _________ Your children: _________

Other relatives: ______ Your parents/your spouse’s parents: _______ Other people:________

42. How an average, what is your personal monthly income?

� None � 3,001 – 4,000 Bs/month � 7,001 – 8,000 Bs/month

� 1B – 1,000 Bs/month � 4,001 – 5,000 Bs/month � 8,001 – 9,000 Bs/month

� 1,001 – 2,000 Bs/month � 5,001 – 6,000 Bs/month � 9,001 – 10,000 Bs/month

� 2,001 – 3,000 Bs/month � 6,001 – 7,000 Bs/month � More than 10,000 Bs

43. In recent months, were you employed full time or as much as necessary?

� Yes

� No, less than full time but more than half time

� No, half time or less

� No, another situation (Please explain):____________________________________

44. Compared to the income of your parent who is the same gender as yourself, your current

income is (-2 for much less, 0 for the same, y 3 for much more):

-2 -1 0 1 2

45. What is your marital status?

� Single � Married � Cohabitation � Separated/Divorced � Widow/Widower

46. What is the material used on the floors of your current house?

� Dirt � Wood � Parquet � Ceramic � Cement

� Mosaic � Brick � Other ______________________________________

47. Principally, the water in your home comes from…

� piped network? � public tank? � truck/delivery? � lake, lagoon?

� well or pump � borehole? � rain, river, slope, ditch?

48. What is the primary source of cooking fuel for your family?

� Gas, in house/piped � Gas, in tank � Electricity � Solar energy

� Firewood � Guano, dung � Other ____________________________

49. Your house has…

� a radio? � a television? � a computer? � internet service? � landline or cellular phone

service?

Section D: Education and Experience at the UAC-CP

50. In which semester did you start your classes at the UAC-CP?

Semester (1 or 2): ___________ Year: _______________

51. In which semester did you finish your classes at the UAC-CP?

Semester (1 or 2): ___________ Year: _______________

52. In what degree program? (If were enrolled in more than one program, mark the most recent.)

� Education � Nursing � Agronomy � Veterinary Sciences � Rural Tourism

57

53. What are the most valuable experiences or courses that you had at the UAC-CP?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

54. What are the most valuable skills you acquired through your courses? Mark all that apply.

� Writing or speaking Spanish � Responsibility � Use of technology

� Writing or speaking English � Punctuality � Use of email

� Writing or speaking another language � Self-sufficiency � Speaking skills

� Communication � Independence � Other(s): ____________

55. When you graduated, did you feel prepared for the next stage in your career / work / school?

� Not very prepared � Somewhat prepared � Very prepared

56. Did you have one or more scholarships for your coursework?

� No (Continue to question 58)

� Yes

Scholarship #1: Name: __________________________________________

Complete, half, or partial: _________________ # Years of Duration: ______

Scholarship #1: Name: __________________________________________

Complete, half, or partial: _________________ # Years of Duration: ______

Scholarship #1: Name: __________________________________________

Complete, half, or partial: _________________ # Years of Duration: ______

57. To what extent did your scholarship(s) affect your ability to complete your studies? (1 for no

effect, 3 some effect, 5 a lot of effect)

1 2 3 4 5

58. Did you receive financial support for your thesis work?

� No (Continue to question 50)

� Yes: Type of funding: _________________________________________

Amount: ________________________________

Name of funder/donor: _________________________ Duration: ____________

59. To what extent did your thesis funding affect your ability to complete your thesis? (1 for no

effect, 3 some effect, 5 a lot of effect):

1 2 3 4 5

60. Please rate your experience at the UAC-CP (-3 for very unsatisfied, -2 for unsatisfied, -1 for

somewhat unsatisfied, 0 for neutral, 1 for somewhat satisfied, 2 for satisfied, 3 for very

satisfied):

A. Student life: ………………………………………....……. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

B. Dorm life: ……………………………………..……….….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

C. Program length: ……………………………..………… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

D. Quality of teaching: ………………………….….……… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

E. Accessibility of teachers: …………………………..… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

F. Knowledge of teachers: …………………………….… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

G. Quality of administration: ….………………........... -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

H. Quality of academics: …………………………….……… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

I. Suitable courses: ….……………………………………….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

J. Relevant courses: …………..……………………………. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

K. Community service requirement: ………………. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

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L. Extension work: …………..………………………..…… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

M. Ethical and spiritual formation: .……………..…… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

N. Access to scholarships or financial support: … -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

O. Adequate professional preparation: ………..…… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

P. Food program: ……………………..………………..…… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

Q. Psychological support: ………………………………….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

R. Pedagogical support: ………………………………….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

S. Library resources: ………………….……………..…….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

T. Laboratory resources: ……………………………..…… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

U. Computer resources: …………..………………..…….. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

V. Gender balance of students: ………………………… -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

W. Gender equity among students: …………………. -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

X. Others (including courses, workshops, etc.): … -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

61. What do you recommend as changes to the curriculum so that graduates have the skills

necessary to succeed in the area where they work or want to work?

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

62. There are virtually an equal number of male and female students at the UAC-CP. Do you think

your studies helped you learn about gender equity, gender stereotypes, and how to

communicate with others about gender equity? (1 for not at all, 3 for somewhat, 5 for a lot):

1 2 3 4 5

63. When you were at the UAC-CP, did you participate in a food cooperative program

� Yes � No

Section E: Employment Since Your Graduation from the UAC-CP

64. What is your employment status?

� I am employed � I am looking for employment (Continue to Section F)

� I have postgraduate plans � Other: __________________________

65. Does your work support the rural or urban area, most of the time? (Rural is less than 10,000

persons).

� Rural � Urban � Both

66. Which languages do you use in your work? Mark all that apply:

� Spanish: Percentage of your time: ____% � Aymará: Percentage of your time: ____%

� English: Percentage of your time: ____% � Quechua: Percentage of your time: ___%

� Other(s):_________________: Percentage of your time: ____%

67. What is your level of satisfaction with your job (-3 for very unsatisfied, -2 for unsatisfied, -1 for

somewhat unsatisfied, 0 for neutral, 1 for somewhat satisfied, 2 for satisfied, 3 for very

satisfied):

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

68. Why? __________________________________________________________________

69. How did you get your first job?

___________________________________________________________________________

70. Could you find the job that you wanted after graduation?

� Yes � No: Please explain: __________________________________________

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71. What is your occupation, job, or office? (For example: researcher, technical consultant,

business owner, tour guide, miner, auto mechanic, grocer, elementary teacher, etc.)

___________________________________________________________________________

72. What do you produce, sell, or what primary economic activity is completed in your workplace?

(For example: primary education, mining of tin, ministry of health, poultry farm, cultivation of

potato, shoe manufacturing, retail in a neighborhood store, etc.)

___________________________________________________________________________

73. What are the main skills you use in your work? Mark all that apply.

� Writing or speaking Spanish � Responsibility � Use of technology

� Writing or speaking English � Punctuality � Use of

email

� Writing or speaking another language � Self-sufficiency � Speaking skills

� Communication � Independence � Other(s): ____________

74. Did your thesis or business plan help you obtain your current job?

� Yes � No

75. How has your education/degree changed your role in the community? (1 if it hasn’t changed, 5

if it has changed completely). If you are working in a different community than you lived in your

childhood, please compare the difference between your childhood community and your current

community:

Level of relations with the community: …..………………….… 1 2 3 4 5

Level of respect from the community: ……………………….. 1 2 3 4 5

Level of leadership in the community: ………………………. 1 2 3 4 5

Level of communication with the community: ..………… 1 2 3 4 5

Level of acceptance within the community: .……………… 1 2 3 4 5

Level of pride in your culture: ………..………………............. 1 2 3 4 5

Perception of yourself, as a member of the community: …… 1 2 3 4 5

76. How has your education/degree allowed you to support your culture (your indigenous culture

or an indigenous culture) or how are you supporting your culture today?

� Use of the language to help and support the people

� Use of the knowledge of the culture (the traditions, beliefs, clothing, food)

� Use of the knowledge of livelihoods

� Other: ______________________________________________________________

77. What other needs are there in the community where you work and how, through unique

initiatives, are you resolving them, alone or with an institution?

______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

78. What are the needs in the community that you or your institution cannot resolve?

______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

79. Does your work fit into any of the following areas of development? (Mark all that apply)

� Social � Environmental � Economic

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Section F: Additional Education

80. Have you enrolled in another undergraduate degree program?

� Yes: Name of degree:________________________________

Year of graduation: ____________ Institution: ______________________

� No

81. Have you enrolled in a certificate/diploma program?

� Yes: Name of degree:________________________________

Year of graduation: ____________ Institution: ______________________

� No

82. Have you enrolled in a master’s program?

� Yes: Name of degree:________________________________

Year of graduation: ____________ Institution: ______________________

� No

83. Have you enrolled in a doctoral program?

� Yes: Name of degree:________________________________

Year of graduation: ____________ Institution: ______________________

� No

Section G: Graduate Support & Feedback

84. Are you interested in supporting the UAC-CP? If yes, how? Mark all that apply:

� Talk with students of the UAC-CP about your job

� Invite students to your workplace to learn more about your work

� Make a donation to a scholarship fund

� Set up extension or collaboration between your work and the UAC-CP

� Talk with donors or others about the UAC-CP and your experience

� Other(s):______________________________________________________________

85. If you had not studied at the UAC-CP, what do you imagine would have happened? Mark all

that apply:

� No higher education or studies past high school

� Limited job opportunities

� Less ability/capacity

� Other(s):______________________________________________________________

86. If we form a graduate network, would you help with it?

� Yes � No

87. Other comments or anything else you would like to say:

______________________________________________________________________________

88. Would you like to be included in the contact list to receive information about the following

things?:

• Job opportunities and/or information on current events at the UAC-CP

• Participation in graduate events

• Certificate/diploma courses or other courses

� Yes � No

Thank you for your time!

Completed by the interviewer: Duration of the survey, in minutes: ____________

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Appendix B: Maps of UAC-CP Graduate Locations, by Rachel Satterlee

Figure 2: Childhood Provinces of Graduates (Location of Childhood Home)

Figure 3: Current Provinces of Graduates (Location of Employment)

UAC-CP

UAC-CP