Universities lead the drop in claims and complaints against higher education institutions

The Superintendency of Higher Education (SES) released the balance of claims and complaints filed on its citizen service platform against higher education institutions during the past year. It reported a total of 3,831 cases, compared to 4,056 in 2021, which translated to a 5.5% decrease in the last 12 months.

The report prepared by the SES, which was published by Emol.cl, detalla que fueron las universidades – que en conjunto concentran el 57,4% de la matrícula del país- las que lideraron esta importante caída en el nivel de conflictividad en el sistema de educación superior. Según los datos de la Superintendencia, las universidades sumaron un total 2.082 reclamos y denuncias, equivalentes al 54,5% del total de requerimientos a nivel nacional, cifra que marcó una baja de 6 puntos porcentuales respecto a lo registrado en 2021 (60,5%).

For their part, professional institutes increased from 31.6%in 2021 to 36,2% their participation in the national total of claims and complaints during the past year, while technical training centers also experienced a slight increase, going from 7.8% to 9,2% in the last 12 months.

One of the reasons that would explain the downward trend in the number of claims and complaints filed with the SES against higher education institutions is related to the reduced impact the pandemic had on the development of academic activities in the country's various universities.

From the Superintendency, they point out that during 2022 they permanently supervised how all higher education institutions progressed in normalizing the delivery of educational services. Thus, it was possible to confirm that by the end of the first semester of last year, the system presented a 79,7% student support in in-person mode and, towards the end of the year, that same record surpassed 90% in most educational institutions, figures that —in general— were much higher than 48% average with which the year 2021 closed. “Undoubtedly, this effort by the entire system allowed higher education to be delivered again under the terms originally committed, significantly reducing a focus of controversy that, during 2020, led to 70% of the claims and complaints received by SES relating to matters most affected by the pandemic,” the regulatory body stated.

Another factor that has contributed to this outcome is the fact that the new institutional framework established by Law 21.091 in 2018 is already in place. This law, among other matters, created the Superintendency of Higher Education, which has incentivized educational institutions in the country to enhance their response capabilities to resolve many issues internally that initially resulted in complaints or reports filed with the SES citizen service platform. This has led to a steady decrease in these requests since 2020. Despite this encouraging sign, the Superintendency indicates that there are still significant areas for improvement in the internal channels for information, communication, and conflict management within some institutions.

Conflict resolution on the rise

A relevant piece of data, which accounts for the progress and consolidation of SES's work in its mission to ensure that the country's higher education institutions fulfill the commitments agreed upon with their students, is that the conflict resolution indicator, following the Superintendency's action, showed a significant increase during 2022. This is confirmed by checking that, of the total number of cases entered and declared admissible last year, the 63,5% it ended with a favorable outcome for the claimant, 6 percentage points more than in 2021, when a record of 57.7%was reached.

Regarding the various reasons for the claims and complaints received during 2022, the categories that accounted for the highest number of submissions were the same three as in 2021. First on the list are requests related to academic matters, even though this figure dropped from 35.6%, in 2021, to 34,5% in 2022. Following behind are claims for administrative reasons that in 2021 represented 33.5% of the total submissions, while in 2022 they showed a slight decrease, remaining at 31,6%. For its part, the financing problems category experienced an increase of almost 3 percentage points, going from 23.3% in 2021 to 26% during the past year.