Mapping the New Undergraduate Student Support in Chile

• In Event: Free-Tuition Policy, Support Programs, and Academic Performance: Lessons for Increased Equity in Chilean Higher Education

Abstract

In recent years, Chilean universities have developed undergraduate student support programs in response to the increasing diversification of their student body. Their responses to expanded access and massification have helped to reconfigure the transformative educational experience their offer to their students. Learning and student support initiatives are now integral part of the undergraduate education landscape in the country, yet they are seldom reflected in the literature.

Based on information gathered from a survey applied to a group of traditional Chilean universities, this study examines and systematizes the available student support programs. On that basis, it analyzes the way in which these institutions have been adapting their academic management structures and systems to the new realities of a diverse higher education. Supported by theories of change in higher education, the study reveals significant transformations in universities’ internal structures, personnel, and avenues for student support. Moreover, the study links these developments to public policies inspired by the New Public Management.

Authors

• José Miguel Salazar, Universidad de Valparaíso - Chile

• Gonzalo Zapata, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Natalia Rojas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile