Título en español.

Abstract

The topic of the present work is the relationship between students‘ socioeconomic status and their access to public higher education in Puerto Rico. The authors examine quantitative data from the US census and institutional (UPR) databases as well as qualitative data from focus groups with students from public housing projects in Mayagüez, the focus of our case study. They integrate the data to 1) demonstrate the strong relationship between family income and access to public higher education, 2) suggest that beyond the income criteria, certain populations are more vulnerable than others to lack of access, 3) examine the ideological dimensions inherent in notions such as "merit" and thus in the development of academic aspirations and in the institutional culture of the university itself and finally, 4) propose a protagonic role for campuses in the UPR system to engage in potential solutions.