Abstract

From a notion of rurality that favors territoriality instead of population density or distance from urban centers, the article presents from semi-structured interviews with academics from universities offering pedagogies in the Maule region, their views in relation to the academic career of students from rural communities in the period: 2005 to 2012. From the interviews it is concluded that in the last five years has had a significant increase of these students, especially women. However, his stay is brief by early defections, becoming the major challenge of these universities. Academic performance is similar to urban students. They note differences between admission and degree. Regarding the labor market and professional forecasts, especially in the possibilities of leadership roles, there is no difference between the two groups of students.