Sociocultural and institutional factors in the erosion of identity in rural migrant university students: a study at the Technical University of Oruro

Abstract

This article addresses the sociocultural and institutional tensions faced by rural students at the Technical University of Oruro. Using a mixed-methods approach and a socio-critical paradigm, 177 students from the Faculty of Legal Sciences were studied to reveal the role of the academic environment in shaping their identity. The results show an academic trajectory inversely proportional to cultural consolidation: 89.26% suffer linguistic silencing, and more than 62% have become disconnected from their ancestral rituals. Institutionally, 66.67% of the curriculum ignores legal pluralism, marginalizing 78% of the student body and forcing them to abandon their ancestral knowledge. The university operates as an assimilation mechanism that exerts symbolic violence, compelling Eurocentric mimicry. This demonstrates a fundamental gap between the State's discourse on decolonization and an academic practice that continues to foster vulnerability, especially among women from rural areas.