Economical restrictions and the decision to undertake technical or professional higher education studies.
Restricciones económicas en la decisión de continuar estudios superiores técnicos o profesionales.
Author
Hernández, Luis
Paredes, Ricardo
Full text
https://www.calidadenlaeducacion.cl/index.php/rce/article/view/22510.31619/caledu.n27.225
Abstract
Countries are increasingly resorting to mixed financing or private funding in higher education due to the massive growth of education and the hope of having its benefits internalized, particularly by students. The authors link between different sources of information to analyze how -and to what extent- the profitability of higher education, students' liquidity restrictions and the limitations of the capacity of study programs affect young people who have completed their high school education, in terms of their decision to continue on to higher education, either by choosing university-track study programs or technical studies. The authors find that, although individual decisions take the profitability of higher education into account and access to education shows a connection with meritocracy, liquidity restrictions help to maintain Chile's characteristic inequality. This is reinforced by the fact that young people with high academic performance do not apply for scholarships and loans, possibly due to asymmetries in access to information. The authors suggest that the effectiveness of student aids and their allocation should be studied in greater detail. Cada vez más países incorporan el financiamiento mixto o privado en la educación superior, debido a la masificación y a la pretensión de que sus beneficios sean internalizados sobre todo por los estudiantes. Relacionando distintas fuentes de información, analizamos en qué forma y medida la rentabilidad de la educación superior, las restricciones de liquidez de los estudiantes y las de capacidad de las carreras afectan la decisión de los jóvenes, con educación escolar completa, de continuar estudios superiores, ya sea eligiendo carreras conducentes a grados profesionales o técnicos. Hallamos que, si bien las decisiones individuales consideran la rentabilidad de la educación y existe meritocracia en el acceso, las restricciones económicas contribuyen a mantener la desigualdad ya característica en Chile. Ésta se refuerza porque jóvenes con alto rendimiento académico no postulan a las becas y créditos, posiblemente debido a asimetrías de información. Se sugiere profundizar en el tema de la efectividad en la asignación de las ayudas estudiantiles.