AFI: un aporte a la calidad

Abstract

Based on publicly available data from the Ministry of Education on the distribution of Indirect Public Funding (IPF), a review of the law and its amendments, and more detailed data on the distribution of IPF for the year 1998, we present an empirical assessment of the performance of IPF between 1990 and 2002.

The analysis shows a concentration of this form of funding upon universities -as compared to professional institutes and technical training centers- institutions who are members of the Council of Rectors, and male students from private schools in the metropolitan region. Explanatory factors are proposed in connection to decreasing interregional mobility of students, the varying capacity of the regions to produce good scores, and the relationship between the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the sex and SES of the student. The close relationship between participation in IPF and institutional prestige is also documented, as is the growing share of private universities in IPF.

Our analysis suggests that adding high school grades to the formula for calculating IPF would benefit female applicants and universities represented in the Council of Rectors, without altering the current socio-economic makeup of recipients of IPF.

Lastly, the importance of IPF as indicator of institutional quality is underscored, together with the need to improve the availability of data on its distribution, as a way to steer the development of higher education towards user-oriented institutional behavior orientation and quality of services and outcomes as key elements for competitiveness.