Examining the Access to Higher Education in Chile from an Equity Perspective

abstract:This study’s primary objective is to examine how the Chilean post-secondary system has responded to the challenge of equity in access to higher education and the influence of some institutional measures on inclusion. Access to higher education institutions (HEIs) must be equitable for applicants and institutions. The relationship between access and equity is examined from different perspectives on the applicant’s characteristics, such as family income, secondary schooling, and gender. The other two views are the type of institution students select and get admission to based on the institutions’ ownership (public vs private). The study uses data from CASEN and SIES databases between 1990 and 2017. The data is analyzed after giving a brief theoretical foundation on equity and its importance in higher education. In the last section, based on the discussion in the previous sections, the paper analyzes the equity of access to higher education in Chile.