Cuban Education between Revolution and Reform

In recent years, Cuba has been immersed in a process of profound change. Amongthese changes, one that has been less addressed by specialists both inside andoutside the island is ‘education reform’, specifically at theuniversity level. The relevance of this study is to understand the currentuniversity education policy as the one that has perhaps the most politicalcontent, the analysis of which would help to understand the challenges inpolitical and ideological matters faced by the government of Cuba today.Therefore, the present work makes a critical assessment of the Cuban educationalmodel based on values as a central focus of university policy and its relevancein the transcendental process of change happening in Cuba today. For students ofpublic policy, the Cuban case encapsulates an important singularity that allowsthe possibility of analysing short-term versus long-term assessments of publicproblems (Ascher 2009). It also allows us to learn about social and policychallenges in a country that has achieved universal mass, free and qualityeducation that has been able to extend itself beyond the capital(Mészarós 2008). What happens next? A reflection on the role ofeducation in a changing society is one of the main purposes of this work.