Thesis presentation: RELMU GEDDA MUÑOZ

The Chilean higher education system has undergone significant expansion and diversification in recent decades, incorporating social groups that were historically excluded. However, this broadening of access has not eliminated the deep inequalities that permeate educational trajectories. Opportunities for persistence and the risk of dropout remain unequally distributed, especially among first-generation university students. The literature has mainly addressed this issue through retention-focused approaches, emphasising institutional practices to prevent student attrition, and dropout-focused approaches, often viewed through individualistic lenses that stress the characteristics of students who leave. Both approaches tend to overlook students’ subjective experiences and the structural processes that shape their trajectories over time. Within this framework, the thesis aims to analyse the persistence of Chilean first-generation university students as a relational and multiscalar process, considering the interactions among subjective experiences, institutional dynamics, social ties, and systemic frameworks in south-central Chile.

The thesis adopts a mixed sequential design with a qualitative emphasis. In the quantitative phase, 587 students from two south-central Chilean universities were surveyed: one with a predominantly middle-class student body and the other with a predominantly working-class one, enabling identification of significant sociodemographic and educational characteristics. In a subsequent qualitative phase, 29 in-depth interviews were conducted with first-generation students, and the analysis was carried out using Grounded Theory procedures. The analytical model was structured around four interrelated levels: systemic, institutional, relational and experiential, in order to conceptualise persistence as a temporal and multi-level process shaped by the interaction between public policies, institutional practices, social ties and lived experience.

The findings show that university persistence is a dynamic, contingent and relational process. At the systemic level, the territorial distribution of educational provision and the Gratuidad (state-funded free tuition) policy influence students’ educational decisions, facilitating access while simultaneously introducing tensions into their trajectories, particularly when funding regulations restrict academic change or professional reorientation. At the institutional level, differences in institutional habitus were identified across the universities analysed, expressed in diverse forms of support, expectations and recognition. At the relational level, family, peers and academic staff play a central role as sources of support or, conversely, as generators of distress. At the experiential level, students face material, academic, relational and mental health challenges, to which they respond through situated practices and strategies that enable them to sustain their trajectories at critical moments.

Building on these insights, the thesis proposes a typology of four forms of persistence trajectories: fit and recognition; misalignment and resistance; adjustment and resignation; and disconnection and exclusion. These configurations are dynamic and illustrate how students can move between different positions over time within the higher education field.  University persistence entails ongoing advances, setbacks and subjective and relational reconfigurations. The study thus offers a sociological understanding of persistence that broadens existing perspectives on educational trajectories. Finally, implications are discussed for public policy and higher education institutions, highlighting the need to promote greater curricular flexibility, strengthen material and relational support, and acknowledge the diversity of trajectories, thereby advancing towards a structural and processual perspective on university persistence in Chile.