Social commitment of higher education. A professional ethics analysis

Rodrigo López Zavala y Martha Lorena Solís Aragón

Social commitment of higher education. A professional ethic´s analysis.

Public universities of the northeast of Mexico have in their institutional discourse, ideological and political elements that are identified with fundamental ethical principles in professional education. However, a critical gaze at what takes place inside of the institutions reveals that the necessary social and pedagogical elements are not present in the environment of university education , of which main expessions of this fact are, the emphasized need for individual and exclusive success and explicit weak commitment to connect the profession with actions that benefit their social group and, in general, society. Universities propose to form professionals that are ...."sensitive to community problems....placing their academic education at society´s service....promoting justice from their professional field" Nevertheless, these features of the university discourse that recuperate the best democratic and humanistic traditions, the signals sent by students and professionals that are being educated, show a noticeable lack of coherence with the principles formally expressed in the legislation and political proposal in higher education institutions. The hermeneutical glance permits the observation of encounters and disencounters that are occuring between structured discourses and the results of the process in higher education. This reflects the social commitment of higher education is a pending quality in the construction of the professional ethos.

Key words:

professional ethic,    social commitment, institutional discourse, ethos