Barranquilla: Leading the Way in Access to Higher Education Opportunities for Young People

1. Home
2. >
3. News

Barranquilla has been in an upward trend in the last 4 years in terms of access to higher education opportunities. This was confirmed by the Ministry of National Education after making public the result of the percentage of students who, by city, in 2022 immediately transitioned to this level of training.

According to the trend, Barranquilla is the capital city of the country that has grown the most in access to immediate higher education. The indicators presented by the MEN reflect that while cities like Medellín and Cali have reduced their indicator in recent years, Barranquilla has risen faster than even Bogotá.

Thus, in Barranquilla, 51.3% of young people who graduate from public and private schools in the capital of the Atlantic manage to immediately enter higher education. Compared to 2021, the increase in 2022 was 4 percentage points, going from 47.3% to 51.3% coverage.

Thus, Barranquilla is located 10 percentage points above the national average (41.08%). In addition, the city ranks third in the country, only below Bucaramanga (54.7%) and Bogotá (51.5%); that is, Barranquilla -with only 1 public university institution in the territory- distances itself from Bogotá by only 0.2%.

In a global panorama, the indicators of Barranquilla and Colombia continue to be favorable, since -according to the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean -IESALC- despite the fact that in the last twenty years the Higher education enrollment in the world went from 19% to 38% between 2000 and 2018, there are still large differences between regions, since “higher education continues to be beyond the reach of the poorest people in the world”, says UNESCO .

That has been precisely the bet of the mayor of Barranquilla, Jaime Pumarejo Heins, who during his administration has fostered opportunities for young people. “The growth in this four-year period has been enormous because we are risking it for that,” highlights the district president.

One of the most important administrative actions is the consolidation of the first public university institution in Barranquilla, the IUB; and other academic programs that start from the strengthening of the average in schools, such as double degrees, reading and bilingualism; and the Universidad al Barrio program that directly benefits students from the lowest strata of the city with 100% scholarships for higher education. Added to all of the above is the pioneering project for the construction and fitting out of 12 specialized SENA offices in the city.

Along the same lines, the Secretary of Education, Bibiana Rincón, considers that “these results show us that we are on the right track, and are the result of the city’s effort and commitment to strategies that allow young people to be given tools to build your life project. We continue transforming lives and ratifying that Barranquilla is the city where dreaming is worth it”.

🔊 Listen