Julio Castro on Higher Education as an Instrument of Social Mobility in Chile and Latin America
On February 21, the Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) hosted a conversation with Julio Castro, president of Universidad Andres Bello in Chile, to discuss the importance of higher education for social mobility in Chile and Latin America, as well as the challenges and opportunities for the sector in a region in flux.
Over the past few decades, Latin America has experienced notable progress in higher education enrollment, yet only around 52% of young adults have the opportunity to pursue a degree. This reality leaves millions without access to the skills and qualifications needed to access the labor market. Moreover, the quality of higher education varies across institutions, and there is a misalignment between the skills needed to enter an evolving labor market and those gained with a higher education degree. This presents clear challenges for Latin America as limited education resources impact its growth potential. To discuss the evolution of higher education in the region, GAI hosted Julio Castro, president of Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile, for a conversation moderated by GAI Founding Director Alejandro Werner.
Unequal Progress in Education Across the Region
Latin America has experienced an incredible transformation in recent years. In 2012, just under 13 million students were enrolled in higher education; this number has risen to over 25 million as recently as 2021. And yet, as Castro explained, this progress has been very unequal. In Argentina, for example, 53% of adults aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in higher education institutions in 2021, while Peru only had 18% of its young adults enrolled. In Chile, where Castro served as chief of the division of higher education in the Ministry of Education from 2006 to 2008, this number stood at 41%.
For Castro, what drives these numbers is economic development, the robustness of education systems, and the resources available for public and private higher education systems. Differences across countries are stark, reflecting the region’s inherent heterogeneity and national and intranational inequality. In Argentina 78% of students are registered in public, tuition-free universities. This helps explain the country’s high enrollment numbers. In Peru, meanwhile, only 25% of students attend public institutions, while 75% receive their education through the private system.
As a whole, only 46% of students in Latin America are enrolled in public higher education. Castro argued that this is due to the state’s limited resources and made the case that education reform is necessary to enable the private sector to play a bigger role in expanding access to affordable, quality education.
“The state has a clear role and it should play it. But because it has limited resources, it should allow for the private sector to do those things for which it is better suited. For example, the state should not build the profitable roads in the center of the country; instead, it should consider building the peripheral ones that the private sector would never finance. This also applies to education.” -Julio Castro
The Case of Chile
Castro continued by explaining that since the reforms of the 1980s which opened the sector to private education, Chile has benefited from consistent growth in university enrollment, from around 185,000 students in 1984 to 1.25 million in 2023. The wide range of private university options helps explain the country’s high enrollment numbers when compared to regional peers and is the reverse of the situation in Argentina: in Chile 83% of students are enrolled in private universities.
What strikes Castro the most is that while enrollment in Chile amongst the wealthiest 10% has consistently oscillated around 60% since 2000, the enrollment of the poorest 10% rose from 13% in 2003 to 38% in 2022. College campuses have become increasingly inclusive and diverse, and higher education has become firmly entrenched in the country as a pathway for social mobility and inclusion. Government programs created in 2006 also provide affordable education loans and debt forgiveness to students. These partnerships between the public and private sectors are the key to Chile’s recent success.
“If we fail to help these underprivileged members of society enter the higher education system we are creating a problem for our society.” -Julio Castro
Castro concluded that the challenge is ensuring continued registration and access growth, promoting knowledge creation, and learning methodologies that prioritize each student’s personal growth. He praised the expansion of the higher education system and shared his belief that a well-educated, prosperous, and socially integrated Chilean society is possible.