Papel del Estado en el desempeño de los sistemas de educación superior. Comparación empírica entre Chile y Ecuador

Resum

The issue of funding in higher education has been, and will remain, one of the most hotly debated issues in history. Hence, it is of interest to learn how efficient the role of the State has been in Latin America, especially in two countries with heterogeneous socio-economic conditions: Chile and Ecuador. The general aim guiding this research is to determine the similarities and differences between State intervention in the higher education systems in these two countries. During the research, findings showed that the implementation of public instruments allowed countless ‘problems’ that had arisen within the higher education system to be solved. In addition, this research has benefited greatly from the points of criticism expressed on the performance by the State. In Ecuador (where State participation is high) the general view was that the State should not be overly ‘controlling’ but it should limit certain irregularities in the system. In the case of Chile, the market model received criticism and, in turn, so did the scarcity of political regeneration to incentive any change in a highly lucrative system. Consequently, this research uncovered features peculiar to each specific country, drawing on the experience of other researchers and experts, hard to understand in the country of origin, and other more relevant failures and successes that could be learned and replicated bearing in mind each country’s inherent needs. Experimenting with new instruments may give rise to highly successful policies that promote a fair economy based on knowledge