Diversity, Democratisation and Difference: Theories and Methodologies
Widening Participation
Policies in Chile under
Neoliberal
governmentalities:
Trends, Policy,
Discourse and
Subjectivities
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer
The subjective landscape of widening participation in
Chilean higher education
% of teachers working in poor schools expecting that their students will
get access to higher education, 2000-2012 (Source: CIDE surveys)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2000
2004
2006
 77,6% of students perceive HE as highly
segmented by class
 61% of working class students are willing to get a
debt for studying in higher education
2008
2010
2012
 79% of students perceive HE as unfair
in terms of access
What is neoliberalism?
 Mode of
governmentality
under the form of the
market
 Disciplinary,
productive and
affective power
moving institutions,
people, spaces
(Lardon, 2014)
“Public Education on Sale”
“Lennin and Coca-Cola”
How neoliberalism did
become hegemonic in Chile?
 The context: Socialism
government until 1973:
 University Reform aiming:
 Democratisation of
universities’ government
structures
 Inclusion of working and
middle classes into
universities to transform power
relations in society
 Two main drivers that led Chile
to embrace neoliberal reforms
were:
 Secure elite privilege and to reestablish capital accumulation
process
 Dictatorship’s need of national
and international legitimacy
 The first Chilean Neoliberal discourse:
 National Security Doctrine and
economic growth for social
development
How neoliberalism did
become hegemonic in Chile?
 Neoliberal economists’
reform by taken over
positions of power:
privatisation and
commodification
Neoliberal hegemony: ‘to constitute
subject positions from which its
discourses about the world made
sense to people in a range of different
social positions’ (Larner, 2000, p. 9).
 Neoliberalism as strategy of
political demobilisation and
legitimation under the
promise of development
The neoliberal economists known as
“Chicago boys”
What was the consequence of neoliberalism for higher
education?
Market Reforms in Chilean higher education
 Universities for elite reproduction
and for the market needs
 Students constructed as
consumers in opposition to
political subjects
 Working class students as the
abject other, “the internal enemy”
with no rights to HE
 The emergence of new private universities
(from 8 in 1981 to 60 universities in total
nowadays)
 Market rules based on:
 Competition, fees, loans,
advertisement, national and
transnational companies’ investment in
universities; banks as one of main
policy actors in WP policies
“Chilean Justice Minister ousted over corruption
scandal involving for-profit universities” (Oct,
2012) (www.dailycensored.com)
Secondary School System, Admission and Funding policy: The Institutional
Technologies of Widening Participation in Higher Education
 The institutional organisation of
secondary education is based on
class:
 Property:
 Private schools for elite;
Subsidised schools for middle
classes; Public schools for
working class
 Curriculum
 Vocational Educational Training
schools (VET) for working class
students; Scientific Humanist
schools (SH) Curriculum
associated to National Entrance
Test
 National Entrance Test: Set of
standardised tests in maths, sciences,
languages and history.
 Influenced by World Bank
 The “State sponsored credit” as
policy of loans
 State by credits to banks
 £360,000 billion pounds between
2006 and 2014 for the banks
 Majority of debtors are from
working class backgrounds
The State Sponsored Credit and the “economy of debt”
Number of Applicants to the States Sponsored Credit by type of school, 2006-2014
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2006
2007
2008
2009
Students from public schools
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Students from subsidised-private schools
Students from private schools
Number of Students with the State Sponsored Credit, 2006-2014
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
2006
2007
2008
Students from public schools
Students from private schools
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Students from subsidised-private schools
Source: http://www.ingresa.cl/
The State Sponsored Credit and the “economy of debt”
 WP by debt as a technology of dispossession
 WP by debt as governmentality
“Students demand that goverment stops the
seizure because of the debts from university
credit” (El ciudadano newspaper, 14th
January, 2016)
“I am really concern with my performance in some
classes, I don’t want to fail, and have to pay and
pay…how far I am going into debt” (Interviewee,
male, 1 year student)
“When I receive your email inviting me to participate
in your research, I thought that you were a bank or
university agent trying to contact me for paying the
debt I have with the university, that is why I did not
respond you at the beginning, I got scared”
(Interviewee, female, ex-students expulsed for low
academic performance).
5 years studying, 15 years paying
The Articulation of School System and Admission Policy: Excluding the
poor
 National Entrance Test and the institutional organisation of secondary education as police
technology of reproduction of privilege and exclusion
% of Students Inscribed for taking the National Entrance Test and got
selected by Universities according to students' schools type. Admission
Process, 2013
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
100
94.7
87.1
76.6
81.2
70.1
41.7
33.1
22.6
29.7
% Inscribed for NET
Municipal
% took NET
% Applied to Univ
Subsidied Private Schools
% Selected by Univ
Private Schools
Own elaboration: Source: DEMRE 2013, and Espinoza & González 2015
The Articulation of School System and Admission Policy: Excluding the
poor
% of Enrolment in Disciplines with the Highest Expected Salary and Employability by
SES (defined by the type of school as proxy of socioeconomic status
Low
SES
Middle
SES
High
SES
Total
Civil Engineering
(Mechanic; Industrial, and
23.0
53.3
23.7
100
Mines)
Medicine
14.8
34.7
50.5
100
Geology
23.6
55.0
21.4
100
Business and
18.6
41.2
40.3
100
Administration
Own elaboration. Source: SIES Database on employment and income searching, 2014 and SIES database on
enrolment, 2013
The Gendered Widening Participation in Chilean Higher Education
 370,405 women and 337,529 in Chilean universities.
Total enrolment by Type of University (Public-Traditional/New Private)
and Gender (Female/Male), 1984-2013
Public-Traditional
Universities
New-Private Universities
1984
Male Female
1996
Male Female
2004
Male Female
2013
Male Female
62.3
37.7
55.1
44.9
50.9
49.1
52.4
47.6
69.6
30.4
46.9
49.8
48.1
51.9
43.7
56.3
The Gendered Widening Participation in Higher Education
% of Enrolment in Disciplines with the Highest Expected Salary and Employability by
Gender (Female/Male)
Female
Male
Total
Civil Engineering
(Mechanic; Industrial, and
Mines)
24.4
75.6
100
Medicine
46.6
53.4
100
Geology
33.8
66.2
100
Business and
Administration
43.2
56.8
100
Own elaboration: Source: SIES Database on employment and
income searching, 2014 and SIES database on enrolment, 2013
• Final remarks
 Neoliberal technologies of widening participation
neglect the right to higher education to “working
class students”; seen as a threat to universities, as
the “internal enemy” of higher education
 Archaic gendered workings of policies and
universities, excluding women from positions of
power and political subjectification. Chilean private
universities fear the existence of students’ unions,
the possibilities for students and professors to
engage publicly in political/civic activities, or the
deepening or installation of democratic governance
mechanisms