Rural people who as first generation access to higher education and its social mobility dynamics at Maule Region.

Abstract

The present article shows findings from a research called "Itinerary of life of rural people who as first generation access to higher education and its mobility dynamics at Maule region", which carried out 32 biographical interviews to professionals of cohort 2003-2004 pertaining to three private and three public universities of the region. The study reports that the university education operates as a mechanism of social mobility in the low class, i.e. poor, and in the lower middle class. In the case of the middle class, it increases standards of living and wellbeing. Nevertheless and due to an increasing overcrowding of university systems, credentials have lose their function to facilitate social ascent, so it is required to develop other devices such as social contacts and individual share capital in order to hold or to improve the social position.