The Largest Public University in Mexico Integrates Higher and Secondary Education During the Pandemic.

• In Event: How Universities Partnered With K–12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile, Mexico, Russia, Qatar, and the United States.

Abstract

The University of Guadalajara (UdeG) is the second largest public university in Mexico, which includes 71 upper-secondary schools, enrolling 50% of the total enrollment at this level in the state of Jalisco. Before the pandemic, academic collaboration between upper-secondary and higher education institutions within UdeG was not systematically monitored and supported, mostly due to the internal governance of the university. However, the pandemic opened opportunities to address the problem and led to a series of actions, including the massive training of around 6,000 full-time professors, 1400 of which are upper-secondary teachers, on the use of technology and active-learning approaches by faculty members from the higher education side of the university. In addition, related teacher’s training programs, aimed at discussing and rethinking the academic model of the university, for the first time, were designed without separating the upper-secondary and higher education levels, engaging in discussions and joint solutions by faculty members from both levels to address the challenges of the pandemic. This collaborative approach resulted in a series of recommendations for the university leadership, including the need to build common teaching capacities for the entire academic community (an approach defended mainly by the professors of upper-secondary schools but supported by the higher education faculty members) and the need to make the transition between upper-secondary and higher education levels more effective and easier for students.

Author

• Carlos Ivan Moreno, Universidad de Guadalajara