Is there room for interculturality? Indigenous youth in Peruvian private universities and the scholarship programme Beca 18

Applying an ethnographic approach, this study examines recently implemented scholarship programmes for Indigenous people in private higher education (HE) institutions in Peru. Interviews with students and staff, participant observations, and participatory activities reveal distrust of scholarship holders by government staff and programme regulators, who exercise various surveillance and control mechanisms. Staff at private universities hinder cultural diversity among students through segregation or integration strategies to deal with Indigenous students, thereby curtailing an intercultural approach. Indigenous students ask for more integration activities and intercultural dialogues as they claim a lack of adequate support programmes and real inclusion, which leads to higher dropout rates. This study contributes to the recovery of students’ voices and concerns by unveiling persistent inequalities in HE. The findings have implications on policy design that take for granted problematic assumptions riddled with colonial prejudices and privatisation ideologies within the field of HE.