| Summary: | <p>The aim of this thesis is to explore the effect that the recent expansion of higher
education has had on the role of inequality by social origins in attendance to this level in
Latin America. To do so, the following 12 countries were included in the analyses: Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Particular attention is paid on Chile, an adjudicative case
within the region as this piece gradually reveals.</p>
<p>The thesis is comprised of two main parts, with one of them dedicated to exploring the recent
expansion and the effects of social origins on higher education at the regional level, and the
other is dedicated to addressing the Chilean case in depth. In total, the piece is comprised of
four empirical and two theoretical chapters, organised as follows.</p>
<p>The first part of this thesis is composed of four chapters. The first chapter entitled <em>“The recent
expansion of higher education in Latin America”</em> describes the general scenario and
characteristics of the recent expansion of higher education in the region, which occurred in
the last two decades in most of the country under study. In addition, the chapter presents the
methodology used for all the empirics at the regional level, including data, sample, variables,
and modelling strategy.</p>
<p>The second chapter <em>“The more… the merrier in higher education?”</em> examines whether the
recent expansion has reduced the effect of social origins on attendance in higher education
in Latin America. To do so, the chapter discusses the general perception, according to which
the recent expansion has been a positive change – because <em>“the more, the merrier”</em> in higher
education – as if expansion was sufficient to democratise access to this level by itself and by
default. </p>
<p>The third chapter <em>“Does privatisation matter?”</em> starts to unveil the role that institutional
settings play in inequality in higher education. To do so, the chapter dedicates a section to
developing a classification of models of expansion for Latin America, based upon the degree
of privatisation and market-orientation in tertiary education.</p>
<p>The fourth chapter <em>“To what extent do countries differ?”</em> continues to unveil the role of
institutional settings, examining if there are any differences by country within a certain model
of expansion. For the three models, cases that deviate from the group trends are identified,
and for each of them the social dynamics behind their results are discussed.</p>
<p>The second part of this thesis is dedicated to the case of Chile and is composed of two
chapters. The fifth chapter is entitled <em>“Expansion and student support policies in a context
of high privatisation: The case of Chile”</em> and details the expansion policies implemented in
higher education in Chile after 2002, with particular emphasis on the student loan regimes.
Chile is considered an adjudicative case in Latin America because the country has been able
to combine trends related to different models of expansion, despite having one of the highest
degrees of privatisation and market-orientation in education.</p>
<p>The sixth chapter <em>“Changing educational inequality in contemporary Chile?”</em> draws on the
particularities of the Chilean case, exploring to what extent the student loan policies
implemented in the last decade have been effective in reducing inequality by social origins
in higher education attendance between different social sectors. In addition, not only higher
education attendance is addressed, but also access to different tiers and institutions. Through
working with a different dataset, CASEN allows for the expansion of the comprehensive
definition of social origins, increasing the number of indicators related to parental
sociocultural and economic resources, providing more up-to-date estimates about their effect
on contemporary educational stratification.</p>
<p>The final part presents the conclusions, including policy implications and recommendations
for further research, both at the regional level and for the case of Chile. The thesis, then,
closes by reinforcing the role of institutional settings in tackling inequality by social origins
in tertiary education and the limitations of the current policies at this level. </p>
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