CHERPE is a research project focused on Cuban higher education reforms. The study takes an anthropology of policy approach to understand such a large-scale process of transformation, both in higher education and in Cuban society. Placed at the cornerstone of the revolution started in 1959, higher education has played a crucial role as a government tool. However, it is a largely unexplored field within an anthropological perspective, and CHERPE aims to make contributions in this regard.

The Faculty of Social Sciences at the Universidad de Holguín was the main research site, where interviews and participant observation were conducted. At the same time, drawing on the existing sociological studies, CHERPE tracks the policy changes implemented in university access as a key concept to understand how higher education has been shaped over time and impacted Cuban society.

As a researcher, I have been studying the university system that trained me as a psychologist, and later led me to become a teacher who engaged in implementing the largest access reform ever, known as universalisation. 

As an anthropologist interested in education, CHERPE’s host has been a dream. One of the few academic departments around the world that was created to nurture the field of educational anthropology. The presence of Professor Susan Wright as supervisor has been of the utmost importance, considering her huge contribution to the field of higher education and her pioneering work on the anthropology of policy approach.