Abstract
By analyzing the access of different socio-economic groups to post-secondary institutions by quintile, this paper examines the impact produced by higher education financing policies in Chile during the Pinochet (1973–1990), the Aylwin (1990–1994) and the Frei (1994–2000) administrations. To this purpose, CASEN databases and semi-structured interviews conducted with former and current government officials as well as higher education administrators provide valuable information to measure the impact that higher education financing policies had on different socio-economic groups. Access to post-secondary institutions is seen in relation to two aspects: (a) enrollment rates by type of institution and sector and (b) access of students (18–24 year-old group) by family per capita income level. Major conclusion set up that despite increased participation across all socio-economic groups within the post secondary system, upper and upper-middle income students gained access to higher education disproportionately compared to lower, lower-middle, and middle income groups during the 1987–1998 period.
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Notes
The concept of democracy has many meanings depending on the perspective used to examine it. According to the author democracy or political democracy in the absence of social equality/equity (case of Chile in the post-Pinochet era) might be qualified as “democracy”.
Prior to 1981, the Chilean government covered approximately 80.0 percent of institutional expenditures. The other institutional revenue sources were generated through sale of services and tuition payments.
Among the six universities privately controlled but publicly funded, two universities belonged to the Catholic Church and the other four belonged to non-profit and philanthropic organizations.
Most of the World Bank’s and the IMF’s experts as well as many outsiders believe that these institutions played a significant role in shaping the way Chile and Latin America in general dealt with the external debt crisis and undertook financial and social reforms (Edwards, 1994; Corbo & Rojas, 1991). But saying that they were influential does not mean that World Bank and IMF had a positive impact on Latin American economies. Indeed, critics of World Bank and IMF adjustment/stabilization policies believe that these contributed to increased inequity and poverty (Carnoy, 1995; Danaher, 1994; Ruccio, 1992; Samoff, 1994).
The MECESUP (1998–2003) is a five-year project co-funded by the World Bank and the Chilean government.
In the 1990s there was a heated debate in Chile among government representatives, scholars and student organizations with regard to the possibility of providing scholarships for students already enrolled or planning to attend technical training centers. As a result, in the year 2000 the Ministry of Education created a new Scholarship Program called Millennium oriented to provide scholarships to economically disadvantaged students expecting to attend private technical training centers. Students enrolled in technical careers either in professional institutes or traditional universities are also eligible (interviews with Pilar Alamos, December 2000; María Elvira Cornejo, December 2000; and Carlos Velasco, November 2000).
Concerning equity of access, the analyses considers two dimensions: (a) equity for equal potential, which assumes that access to education should be guaranteed to all individuals having equal abilities and (b) equity for equal needs, which conceives that access to education should be assured at the individual and group levels on the basis of need (see Espinoza, 2007).
For this purpose, the main source to be used will be the CASEN household survey. Statistics on the level of access to higher education by socio-economic group were not available before 1987 because CASEN databases started recording these data at the beginning of that year. Unfortunately, there are no other instruments or studies which provide that kind of information. CASEN is a national household survey conducted by the Ministry of Planning every two years. The CASEN survey is a sample geographically stratified by conglomerates, polietapic and probabilistic.
For example, various former and current government officials and administrators of higher education institutions agree that the student loan scheme should have been open, from the beginning, to all students attending post-secondary institutions (universities, professional institutes and technical training centers). The student loan scheme, however, has always been reserved for those students enrolled in traditional publicly funded universities. Therefore, high school graduates from low or middle-income families wishing to attend technical training centers or professional institutes have found serious financial restrictions to enrollment (interviews with Eugenio Cáceres, November 2000; and María Elvira Cornejo, December 2000). In 1996 some technical training centers grouped in CONIFOS set up institutional student loans with similar characteristics to the university loan system (interview with Luis Penna, November 2000). One year later, in 1997, the Chilean government launched the CORFO loan system as an alternative financial mechanism to support students attending at the non-university level.
This unequal growth among socio-economic groups could be explained in part because most developing countries, including Chile, subsidize students from all socio-economic status. The result is that a large share of the benefits from such subsidy schemes tends to accrue to high-income families (see Jiménez, 1987). In the case of Chile in the late-1980s the top 20.0 percent income group obtained 53.0 percent of public subsidies, while the bottom 20.0 percent only received 6.0 percent (Ministerio de Educación, 1998).
However, the proportion of students from low (quintile 1) and lower-middle (quintile 2) income families enrolled in various regional, publicly funded universities (e.g., Universidad Católica del Maule) approached 40.0 percent in the late-1990s (interview with María Elvira Cornejo, December, 2000).
A large percentage of students enrolled in technical training centers are workers who take classes in the evening after business hours (interview with Luis Penna, November 2000).
Even though former and current government officials had positive balances (not based in empirical data) about access by SES quintile at the non-university level with regard to those youth belonging to low and middle income families, these data confirm what they pointed out in the interviews in the sense that a higher proportion of working and middle class students were attending non-university institutions compared to the university level (interviews with Luis Eduardo González, December 2000; José León, November 2000; and Carlos Velasco, November, 2000).
Although there are no data available before 1987 it is possible to speculate that the low proportion of poor students (quintile 1 & 2) enrolled in universities, professional institutes and technical training centers in 1987 compared to that of subsequent years might be associated with three possible explanations: (a) the negative effects caused by structural adjustment programs implemented in the 1980s in terms of income distribution, which mostly affected low and middle-income families; (b) the non existence of tuition scholarships oriented towards these socio-economic groups; and (c) programs offered in professional institutes and technical training centers were of low quality and unattractive.
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Acknowledgements
Preparation of this paper was supported in part by Grant provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Center for Latin American Studies´ Research and Development Fund at the University of Pittsburgh as well as by the School of Education´ Research Fund, the Institute for International Studies in Education at the University of Pittsburgh, and the National Council of Science and Technology, Project 1050142. I am indebted to Mark Ginsburg and Ann Matear, my friends and colleagues, who made helpful criticisms of earlier drafts. Sole responsibility is of course the author.
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This article is a refined and abridged version of Chapter 8 of the doctoral dissertation titled “The Global and National Rhetoric of Educational Reform and the Practice of In (Equity) in the Chilean Higher Education System (1981–1998)” authored by Oscar Espinoza (2002)
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Espinoza, O. Creating (in) equalities in access to higher education in the context of structural adjustment and post-adjustment policies: the case of chile. High Educ 55, 269–284 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-007-9054-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-007-9054-8