Collaboration among disciplines and UEPs is essential to improve their teaching and research profile. Case Ecuador

Abstract

University development in Ecuador was relatively uncoordinated; it was not until the early 1970s that further progress was enshrined in the national education plan. Even then, hardly any attention was paid to research. Additionally, the political, social, and economic development in the following decades, along with the fairly autonomous and uncoordinated landscape of university development can be the cause of the fragmented and mediocre educational and research level of Ecuador’s Universities and Polytechnic Schools, at the beginning of the 21st century. It was not until 2008, with the creation of the new constitution, that higher education and research were increasingly being effectively directed, evaluated, and starting to bear fruit. The limited funding of university education and research, resources that are more likely to decrease than increase as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, and the continuing fragmentation between institutions may delay the ongoing rise. Based on an analysis of indicators of higher education and research, and Ecuador’s UEP ranking at the international level, some strategic measures are proposed that can initiate improvement of the performance and efficiency of Ecuador’s higher education and research profile. Especially cooperation within and among institutions and the pursuit of interdisciplinary oriented education and research, preferentially in collaboration with various social actors, are considered the leverage for turning Ecuador’s UEPs into entrepreneurial higher education institutes and will assure that the institutions provide better support to the society.