Paper short abstract:

Using the method of analysis provided by strategic management and data from original research on the empirical determinants of universities' quality, this paper addresses the empirical factors of the crisis of Chilean higher education and generates the minimum guidelines for its sustainable reform.

Paper long abstract:

Since its re-foundation in 1981, Chilean higher education has developed structural problems of quality. Its massification, reaching over 50% of gross enrolment and implemented through private institutions operating on the basis of market competition, has entailed the extension of such problems on the broad society. The challenges of the university institution in Chile are framed in this context. On the one hand, the cost of higher education in Chile is among the most expensive in the world in relation to GDP per capita, leading to unbearable economic burdens on the students. On the other hand, the average length of an undergraduate programme extends over 14 semesters, whilst the effective graduation rate is only around 50%. These inefficiencies occur at the same time that some private universities, which by Law are required to be non-for-profit organizations, have been found extracting profit from student fees. The national quality assurance system, created in 2006 to introduce regulation on higher education, now suffers from a credibility crisis due to a case of corruption. Lastly, a student movement emerged in 2011, with hundreds of thousands of people taking the demand for free public education to the streets and this raised public awareness of the crisis at the root of higher education. Using the method of analysis provided by strategic management and data from original research on the empirical determinants of universities' quality, this paper addresses the empirical factors of the crisis of Chilean higher education and generates the minimum guidelines for its sustainable reform.