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I am at one of the best universities in Chile (UTFSM). It takes students on average something like 6 years or more to graduate and that doesn't count all of the ones who leave without graduation. And this is one of the best universities, the MIT of Chile.
The main issue I think is preparation. Chile is a very classed by society (the GINI is much worse than the US, for example), and then causes both the 'normal schools' and the 'private schools' (1-12) to be very poor. People will spend 20k USD to send their child to a private school which would be considered only average (not like Kuci/HC school or even AS school) in the US. The free schools are much much worse, effectively meaning that the only people who are partly prepared are those whose parents are rich. Since the expensive schools don't have to compete much, they give a subpar education too (there is a huge interview process for those 'elite' schools to see if you are the right sort to have your child get in...).
This is in a country where the GDP per capita is ~16k USD and the median household income is closer to ~13k USD. It was much much lower 10 years ago too (in PPP, the GDP per capita is now 23k USD while in 1994 it was 6.5k USD, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD )
The university issue is also complicated. As Chile has become more wealthy, there has been a huge increase of universities (previous to 10 years ago, there were about 10 accredited universities in the country, now there is 20+ in Valparaiso alone). Most of these universities are also poor, and so students who attend them take a long time to graduate, but aren't actually moved into the upper class as far as jobs go when they graduate (those go to the graduates of places like UTFSM). This upsets them, many feel they are 'owed' because they went to university and paid so much money (often for much more than 4 years).
There are many 'pre universities' which are meant to get the students up to university level. This is good idea, much better than spending many years at university. This is a new thing though.
I think the main problem is that the 1-12 education is broken, and produces unprepared students. The other two problems are that students expect that if they pay money they should get what they payed for (an education which will let them into the elite and give them a good job) and that universities focus on profits instead of educating the students.
There isn't the problem similar to the US where students take worthless degrees. I have a hard time getting good physics students here because all of the best ones want to be engineers so they can make money.
Good things in Chile is that the government finances are good, the country has grown enormously in the last 20 years, and unemployment is ~2% or something.
JM
The main issue I think is preparation. Chile is a very classed by society (the GINI is much worse than the US, for example), and then causes both the 'normal schools' and the 'private schools' (1-12) to be very poor. People will spend 20k USD to send their child to a private school which would be considered only average (not like Kuci/HC school or even AS school) in the US. The free schools are much much worse, effectively meaning that the only people who are partly prepared are those whose parents are rich. Since the expensive schools don't have to compete much, they give a subpar education too (there is a huge interview process for those 'elite' schools to see if you are the right sort to have your child get in...).
This is in a country where the GDP per capita is ~16k USD and the median household income is closer to ~13k USD. It was much much lower 10 years ago too (in PPP, the GDP per capita is now 23k USD while in 1994 it was 6.5k USD, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD )
The university issue is also complicated. As Chile has become more wealthy, there has been a huge increase of universities (previous to 10 years ago, there were about 10 accredited universities in the country, now there is 20+ in Valparaiso alone). Most of these universities are also poor, and so students who attend them take a long time to graduate, but aren't actually moved into the upper class as far as jobs go when they graduate (those go to the graduates of places like UTFSM). This upsets them, many feel they are 'owed' because they went to university and paid so much money (often for much more than 4 years).
There are many 'pre universities' which are meant to get the students up to university level. This is good idea, much better than spending many years at university. This is a new thing though.
I think the main problem is that the 1-12 education is broken, and produces unprepared students. The other two problems are that students expect that if they pay money they should get what they payed for (an education which will let them into the elite and give them a good job) and that universities focus on profits instead of educating the students.
There isn't the problem similar to the US where students take worthless degrees. I have a hard time getting good physics students here because all of the best ones want to be engineers so they can make money.
Good things in Chile is that the government finances are good, the country has grown enormously in the last 20 years, and unemployment is ~2% or something.
JM
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