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Volume 12, Issue 4   REGIONAL
NEWS
PRACTICAL
INFORMATION RESEARCH
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Regional News
For most Chilean families that scrape and save to send their children to college, this is an expensive loss to chalk up. Annual tuition fees can run anywhere from $1,700 to $3,500. There are few scholarships to be had. More than 60 percent of Chilean students pay full tuition without the aid of grants or loans.
Experts attribute the high dropout rate to a lack of information on university programs and job prospects. Many students enter programs that are not suitable for them only to lose interest and leave school before graduation. Moreover, students do not have access to information on dropout rates while, at the same time, many universities have a tendency to over-enroll freshmen to compensate for the thinning out process that occurs in later years.
To combat this problem, the government recently initiated a five-year program that will publish statistics on dropout rates and introduce an accreditation system for institutions of higher education. The plan is backed by a $145 million loan from the World Bank.
The proliferation of new colleges and universities over the past two decades has also raised concerns about the diminishing quality of higher education. Between 1973 and 1990, the Pinochet government did much to deregulate Chile’s system of higher education, opening it to private investment. In 1980, the country had eight universities. Today there are 70; two-thirds of them are private institutions that operate with little or no state funding.
Twenty years ago, about 30 percent of all high school graduates went on to pursue college degrees. That figure has grown to 60 percent today.
The government has recently taken steps to ensure that the emergence of so many new institutions does not bring down educational standards: Newly established universities are now required to obtain a permit and undergo a probationary period.
One of the reasons students give for leaving school early is that courses remain too specialized and the current system makes it virtually impossible for students to change majors if they choose to do so.
The University of Chile, which is state supported, is attempting to solve this problem by introducing a two-year common core curriculum. This will lengthen most university degree programs to six years, but the government hopes the new scheme will give students a broader education while curbing the dropout rate.
— The Economist
The administration, supported by some faculty members and students, pushed for a tuition increase with the aim of making the university more selective and changing its curriculum to better prepare students for the job market.
But the strikers condemned the proposal, arguing that it infringed on the constitutional rights of all Mexican citizens to a free college education.
The governing council of the university, composed of both students and faculty, announced that tuition fees would still be raised from the equivalent of two cents a year to $70 a semester but that payments would be voluntary.
Classes and all other campus activities, except for basic research, came to a standstill during the strike, which interrupted the studies of 270,000 students. The council also announced it would extend the semester into the summer months to make up for lost time.
— New York Times
During that period, the number of women registering for the GMAT increased 867 percent from Vietnam, 185 percent from China and 116 percent from South Korea.
At Yale, where the international student population has traditionally been 99 percent male, the number of Asian women admitted to the business school has surged 132 percent in the past six years.
In 1997, there were only two Asian women attending the University of Chicago’s business school. This year, that number jumped to 19. There are 289 women from Asia applying for MBA admission at the school this fall, up from 168 just two years ago.
This upward trend is largely the result of increasing numbers of women seeking positions in the Asian business world, a realm that has traditionally been dominated by men.
American companies with branches in Asia are hiring more and more native-born women to work for them. Many of these women go to the United States to earn their MBA degrees and then return to their home countries in search of better job opportunities.
— Wall Street Journal
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Out of the 60,000 Chilean students attending universities this year, only about half will make it to graduation, according to The Economist. The rest will either withdraw for financial reasons or lose interest and drop out.