Between utopia and 'today's situation', the possible university

Cuban education —including higher education— still echoes a utopia in which its role in building a fairer society has been central. Since 1959, it has become a key site of political contestation, transformed while serving the ends of social transformation (Cordovés, 2017, 2019). Education turned into an imagery built on impressive (macro)statistics and a discursive construction emphasising the (over)fulfilment of policy aims. Yet, how this utopia is enacted on the ground remains largely unexplored. Even though various scholars have examined the complexities of university-building and recent reconfigurations (Tejuca et al., 2015; Tejuca et al., 2017; Tejuca, 2020; Ávila, 2024), these studies mainly focus on what is going on at the University of Havana.Based on ethnographic fieldwork at the University of Holguín in eastern Cuba, this paper addresses the university as enacted by its research participants. In a context characterised by severe polycrisis (Espina, 2024, 2025) —including economic collapse, the largest migratory wave in the country’s history (with profound demographic consequences), and a social crisis that has diminished the university’s appeal— we identify ‘today’s situation’ as an emergent concept shaping the university’s (re)organisation. Such reconfiguration goes beyond institutional boundaries, revealing how teachers and students forge new relationships with the university.‘Today’s situation’ becomes a handhold legitimising adaptive strategies contingent on the given circumstance it is describing. Therefore, as an electricity crisis, it leads to the reorganisation of work strategies and schedules, both institutional and individual. As a transportation crisis, it authorises a change in class timetables and a new consensus among stakeholders. As a food crisis, it sparks grassroots agricultural initiatives. As an economic crisis, it redefines priorities, creating hybrid roles such as students working (or workers studying), entrepreneurial educators, and widespread moonlighting. As a migration and demographic crisis, it tensions enrolments, threatening the viability of departments and degree programs.Our analysis thus traces the emerging university between a challenging ‘today’s situation’ and an outdated utopia —a site of constant contestation.