Evolution of Chilean Higher Education From the Governance Equalizer Perspective

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how Chile's higher education system governance has evolved over the past 50 years. The New Public Management (NPM) narrative is used as our conceptual framework and the governance equalizer as our analytical model to study changes in different periods characterized by different political contexts. The results show that over the past 50 years, governance of the Chilean higher education system has transitioned from an academic self-governance regime to a hybrid scheme coordinated predominantly by means of state regulation, competition and managerial governance. The results of previous studies that used the governance equalizer lens applied to the higher education systems of Italy, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, and Ethiopia are reviewed. We find there is a common trend towards hybrid governance models, and we note the limitations of the ideal governance regimes to represent the current complexity of national systems of higher education.