Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the first ten years of Bolivarian reform of higher education (1999-2009). Focusing on the establishment and development of the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, it shows how a number of contingent choices led to the reproduction of old stratifications at yet a new level.

Paper long abstract:

This paper follows the shifts of higher education reform of the Bolivarian government in the period 1999-2009. Based on interviews with key academic intellectuals and ethnographies from the main campus of the Bolivarian University of Venezuela in Caracas, I show how the attempts to extend university access to poor Venezuelans have worked on the ground. After traditional academics mobilized university autonomy against government intervention and supported the attempted coup d'etat against Chávez, the government created a parallel university system. Establishing the vanguard institution of the higher education reform, the Bolivarian University, radical academics from the former student movements tried to kill two birds with one bullet: to provide higher education and job placements to the majority of Venezuelans formerly excluded from higher education, and to carry out profound reform of the institution of the university. The paper outlines some of the advancements of the government of late President Chavez, and some possible reasons for the persisting stratification, which the next governments will have to address.