Arriving at university: Aspirations and experiences of first-year university students in Mexico

Abstract

This paper analyzes the aspirations of first-year students from six universities in Mexico that maintain significant differences according to the regime, public or private; the institutional development, consolidated or developing; the social composition of its students; and the geographical location of the universities. To analyze these differences and observe their relationship with the university student's aspirations the following concepts are considered: asymmetric university spaces (EUA) (Villa Lever et al., 2017); aspirations (Appadurai, 2004), and youthful condition (Reguillo, 2010). Conclusions guide to differences between university students' ability to aspire and their relationship with the asymmetries found between the AUS through the statistical analysis of 1605 surveys and 31 semi-structured interviews.