Desertion and graduation. Measuring the efficiency of state universities in Chile

Abstract

Reducing desertion and increasing graduation in Higher Education has become an imperative for governments, in order to improve equity and address social and economic exclusion of the most vulnerable sectors. In this context, it is intended to measure the efficiency of the 16 Chilean state universities, using a non-parametric model of Enveloping Data Analysis (DEA) with data from the Ministry of Education during the period 2015-2016. The results indicate that the average country efficiency is 81.71% in retention and graduation, where universities in the north are the most efficient, followed by those in the south. Meanwhile, those in the center presented greater variability and inefficiency with respect to the national average. However, it must be considered that universities are multiproduct and must combine their resources for a variety of functions.

Keywords

• educación superior
• deserción
• graduación
• eficiencia
• sector público.