PROPHE Summary:
In May 2003 the Chilean Congress began the discussion of two higher
education bills, which, if approved, would have important effects upon
the development of private higher education in Chile-which holds 7 in
ten of the country's enrolments.
The first bill provides for a new system of financial assistance to
students of public and private institutions of higher education, both
at the university and the non-university tertiary levels. Currently,
students at private institutions of higher education are not eligible
for subsidized loans to defray the burden of tuition payments. The proposed
bill would encourage private financial institutions to lend tuition
money to students by guaranteeing future repayment of the loan through
the collateral of the higher education institution itself, or the government's.
If the student who has received a loan drops out from the higher education
system, the higher education institution he deserted would be responsible
for repaying the loan if the former student does not. But non-payment
of graduates would require the government to repay the loan. It is expected
that the new funding system will greatly expand access to private higher
education, to-date severely curtailed by the lack of financial assistance.
The second proposed piece of legislation would strengthen and unify
quality assurance mechanisms for all institutions of higher education,
public and private, through program and institutional accreditation.
This proposal represents a change in policy after 20 years in which
governmental quality assurance has been applied only to private institutions.
Both projects suggest a policy shift in Chile from differentiated (and,
many argue, discriminatory) regulation of the private sector towards
a greater set of common, general rules for public and private institutions.
Such a shift could once again make Chile a leader in crucial aspects
of higher education privatization, just as it has been to date in both
the privatizing of major features of public higher education and in
the growth of private institutions.
PROPHE Observation:
The introduction of accreditation in Chile fits the pattern of
delayed regulation found in most of Latin America and elsewhere, emerging
from a period of rapid proliferation of poorly regulated private institutions.
An interesting feature of the Chilean accreditation bill is that
it gives private accrediting agencies the task of evaluation programs,
while a public commission licenses those private accreditation agencies,
and carries out institutional accreditation directly. The inclusion
of both private and public institutions is a common feature of new accreditation
systems and so is a mix of support on the one hand and complaints about
accreditation being too intrusive or misguided in its criteria.
