Current Regulations on Higher Education in Colombia

Considerations Based on Ancient Skeptical Doubt

Abstract

This article explores the link that the current Colombian regulations on Qualified Registration and High Quality Accreditation of higher education institutions and programs establish between teaching and learning. The link explored therein is analyzed on the basis of the doubt that the ancient philosopher Sextus Empiricus expressed on the same subject. His doubt, and the treatment that Augustine of Hippo elaborates on it, allows us to show that there are at least three positions on this matter: the skeptical one, which denies that such a link exists at all; its opposite, which affirms the necessity of the link; and the moderate one, which affirms a connection between signs and learning. The three positions are dealt with in the first section of the text. The article, in the second section, shows that teaching is made invisible in the norms and that its function, with regard to the issue at hand, is assumed by institutional action and means. Finally, in the third section, the article argues that the current standards affirm the need for such a link in the notion of Learning Outcomes. Thus, from a philosophical analysis, the standards must be questioned.