Educación Universitaria: la flexibilización del curriculum en cuestión. Estudios de casos en Argentina y Uruguay

Abstract

This article explores the flexibilisation policies of the university curriculum, taking as case studies 64 degree courses at the University of the Republic (UdelaR), Uruguay, and the National University of Río Negro (UNRN), Argentina. To this end, a review of documents available at both universities, study plans and curricula is carried out, qualitatively analysing the meanings that are linked to curricular flexibility in them. Then, relevant variables are identified for comparison between the universities and analysed, through bivariate tables and graphs, their differences and similarities in terms of curricular flexibility, according to the area of knowledge and the duration of the degree courses. As a result, less than half of the syllabuses analysed incorporate the notion of flexibility as an explicit characteristic or condition considered in their formulation. The UdelaR has incorporated subject electivity, the incorporation of common subjects between degree courses and creditisation as strategies for making its syllabuses more flexible. This is not the case at the UNRN, where these strategies are residual or very incipient. On the other hand, in both universities there is a strong structuring in the passage from the first to the second year.