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INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

New Developments in Colombia’s Higher Education

Consuelo Uribe
Consuelo Uribe is associate professor and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Javeriana University in Bogota. Address: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Edificio Manuel Briceño, 3er Piso, Bogota, Colombia. E-mail: curibe@javeriana.edu.co.

Access to higher education by Colombia’s youth population is lagging behind by international and regional standards. The country’s 22 percent enrollment rate does not meet the country’s needs in terms of technological and economic development. A large majority of students in higher education are enrolled in university-type institutions on average in five-year programs, while technological and technical institutions only have a fifth of all students.

Higher education enrollment rates in Latin America are on average 25 percent, which is largely not up to the level in other developing areas of the world, such as the so-called Asian Tigers. Colombia’s enrollment rate is lower than the regional average, lagging behind neighboring countries such as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.

Colombia’s mediocre rate of access to higher education has been blamed for much of the country’s faulty economic performance, producing a working population with low skills, inadequate connection of its population to the global world, poor scientific and technological training, low productivity and participation in research and development, and scant occupational mobility.

The Public-Private Mix
A unique characteristic of Colombia’s educational system is the composition of public and private enrollments at the different levels of education. Whereas most primary (81 percent) and secondary (72 percent) students attend public institutions, 70 percent of students attend private higher education institutions. This contrast has to do with higher education institutions’ role as relatively good businesses and public institutions having their growth restricted due to fiscal constraints.

This trend has serious consequences concerning higher education access for graduates of public secondary schools. Public universities (both national and regional) admit only about 15 percent of the new students. In national universities, there are always more candidates than places. Instead of moving to towns with extra places available at public universities, most students apply to private institutions with a range of academic standards, prices, and traditions.

The differences in public and private enrollments between basic and higher education in Colombia are related to the constraints of the public offer. The limited access to subsidized (public) higher education means that the students who fail to gain admission and cannot afford to pay tuition opt out of the educational system.

The Evaluation System
In contrast to the generally grim situation of its higher education system, Colombia is a Latin American country with one of the more complete and rigorous systems of government-led evaluation and accreditation schemes.

Evaluation through achievement tests was first instituted in 1970 for students graduating from secondary schools. The mandatory ICFES exam-named after the institute that designs and administers the tests-forms the main basis for determining admission to higher education institutions. Students from private, urban, and day schools consistently produce higher scores.

Evaluation of both public and private primary and secondary students (third, fifth, seventh, and ninth graders) was first introduced in 1990. This is called the SABER test, and it is designed and administered by ICFES. These tests have confirmed the higher performance of students from private, urban, and day schools.

A final exam (ECAES) for university undergraduates was introduced in 2000 for a few programs and became mandatory in 2003 for students in most professional programs. The ECAES scores are generally high at public national universities, with a few private elite universities matching or outdoing them.

The previously mentioned divergence between public and private enrollments at secondary and postsecondary levels is at odds with the configuration of test scores: mediocre or low test scores prevail for students from public institutions at primary and secondary schools and high scores for students at a number of public universities. This is a peculiar phenomenon in Colombia. It means that many graduates of private schools with the necessary skills to attend competitive public universities are being admitted there, displacing those from public schools who cannot afford to pay private-university tuition costs. No wonder disparate income levels are an acute problem in the country.

The Accreditation System
Higher education accreditation in Colombia is government led and covers two aspects: institutions and programs. The National Council of Accreditation (NCA) has established the two-tier accreditation system. During the 10 years that the NCA has been operating, a total of 303 programs have been accredited. Institutional accreditation started in 2003 and has been granted to a total of 10 universities, 6 of which are private. Accreditation is granted for six to nine years. The “top-10” accredited universities, along with the National University of Colombia (outside of the accreditation track), are the ones with the highest ECAES scores.

Accreditation and quality assurance were both set up to counter the growth of private institutions with less than optimal performance standards. Accreditation of public institutions has also been encouraged, given that some of the regional and local universities are having a hard time matching the standards of national institutions and private universities of excellence.

Reforms of Government Monitoring
Autonomy is the adjective that most likely comes to mind when higher education is mentioned in Colombia. The term is included in the 1991 Constitution in reference to tertiary education institutions and is developed further in statutory law. However, autonomy resulted in the proliferation of institutions that are having a hard time with evaluation and accreditation.

The current Uribe administration initiated a series of measures to reform the monitoring of both basic and upper levels of education. In higher education, the measures aimed at controlling the proliferation of programs with low quality standards and coordinating the monitoring of higher education with that of preschool, primary, and secondary schools. The steps taken have included the creation of a Vice-Ministry of Higher Education within the Ministry of Education, the setting of minimum standards for granting accreditation, redefining academic credit and the curriculum of credit-based programs, and enhancing technical and technological education. The last set of measures involves setting performance indicators for public universities as a basis for granting up to 12 percent of their budget. These indicators include completion time and dropout and enrollment rates, which all need to be improved if a public university wants to receive its entire approved budget. Teachers’ salaries would also be pegged more strictly to productivity.

Conclusion
Whereas the measures taken by the Uribe administration will have an impact on Colombia’s higher education system, the results have yet to be seen. The approach is well conceived in the sense that reforms include primary and secondary education as well and the public and private mix of the different levels. Yet, the challenge is big and the needs are extensive.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number42/p20_Uribe.htm