Transformations, achievements and obstacles of student accompaniment policies in times of forced virtualization in an Argentine public university

Abstract

This article presents the progress of a Research Project, based at the Rosario Institute of Educational Sciences (IRICE) - National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) -National University of Rosario (UNR)-, whose general objective is to produce knowledge about the problems of admission and student accompaniment policies in faculties of the National University of Rosario (UNR) and the modifications they suffered during the pandemic in relation to the processes of university inequality. At a methodological level, the project is positioned from the case study perspective, adopting the National University of Rosario, Argentina, as an instrumental and intrinsic case. Thus, qualitative methodological strategies are implemented, such as interviews and documentary analysis, with triangulation of quantitative techniques, such as survey administration. Among the main findings, it is worth mentioning that with the pandemic, the student accompaniment spaces analyzed underwent forced virtualization processes that produced significant transformations. Regarding the achievements, the actors highlighted the importance of accompaniment in a difficult and unprecedented context and the important role that the tutors had to guarantee the right to education; however, they point out difficulties in student participation in the spaces and obstacles in the construction of the tutorial role.