Institution-level admissions initiatives in Chile: enhancing equity in higher education?

Can higher education admission be more equitable? Evidence supporting the inclusion of relative ranking in the process

“…When modelling a production function in education, it is necessary to define some prior considerations that are in accordance with the characteristics of the educational system itself (Contreras, 2001;Contreras et al, 2009;Santelices et al, 2019). When estimating such a production function, the problem of selection bias arises since the distribution of the students from each type of school is not random; rather there are specific characteristics of the students and their families that determine the type of school the student attends.…”

“…However, evidence has shown inconclusive results about their benefits since these admission tests are conditioned to students' sociodemographic characteristics (Mahlangu, 2020;Niessen et al, 2018;Zwick, 2012). Furthermore, Aitken (1982), Alnahdi (2015), Evans (2013), and Sulphey et al (2018) demonstrated that students' performance in higher education is closely linked to their academic performance in secondary education; thus, it is essential to complement higher education admission systems in such a way as to encourage the entry of talented students and increase access for traditionally underrepresented groups (Jia & Ericson, 2017;Koljatic & Silva, 2013, Santelices et al, 2019.…”

“…The educational system in Chile has several characteristics that make it an interesting case study. For instance, the school system is highly segregated (Santelices et al, 2019). There are three types of schools: private, semi-private (private with public funding), and public, with most vulnerable students attending those in the latter categories, resulting in lower probabilities that they will obtain good scores in the university admission tests (Santelices et al, 2019).…”

“…For instance, the school system is highly segregated (Santelices et al, 2019). There are three types of schools: private, semi-private (private with public funding), and public, with most vulnerable students attending those in the latter categories, resulting in lower probabilities that they will obtain good scores in the university admission tests (Santelices et al, 2019). Access to higher education is mainly based on performance via a standardised admission test; thus, since socioeconomic variables dictate the type of education obtained during the school period and students' subsequent performance in the admission test, the system becomes highly inequitable.…”

Active learning reduces academic risk of students with nonformal reasoning skills: Evidence from an introductory physics massive course in a Chilean public university

“…Our institution has an inclusive access policy that favors admissions to higher education of students with very heterogeneous profiles. Some students are admitted for their performance in the university selection test, while others for their results in high school, even if their selection test results were insufficient [9,10]. This politics is oriented to reduce the socio-economic gap in STEM education.…”