Mapping of Admission Devices to National Universities in Argentina

The heterogeneity of students' academic trajectories in higher education constitutes an issue that has led to the formulation of various lines of research in studies on the educational system in Argentina. Many young people do not gain access to higher education, few manage to progress through their programs on time, and even fewer graduate. This issue can be approached from multiple perspectives. This paper adopts an institutional/organizational approach, with a special focus on the university entry process. At the regional level, numerous studies indicate that effective democratization of higher education requires policies and strategies capable of improving student enrollment and retention rates. This paper explores the mechanisms that national universities have designed to regulate access to higher education. The objective is to present a mapping of these mechanisms across national universities in Argentina, constructed from a comparative perspective. A survey of institutional regulations was conducted, along with an analysis of information available on the official websites of these institutions. After constructing a matrix of systematized data, trends were identified through a cross-sectional reading of the constructed map. The findings reveal a strong presence of regulatory mechanisms for university entry within national universities, with varying characteristics regarding their organization, curricular components, duration, and evaluation methodologies. Finally, it is emphasized that the design of mechanisms to support student trajectories at the onset of their university experience forms part of the political and pedagogical commitment of higher education institutions to the Right to Higher Education.