Equality of Opportunity in Access to Higher Education

Equality of opportunity is considered by many a basic human right. It is achieved when everybody can reach their full potential, and nobody is limited by the circumstances of their own birth. However, today millions of youths around the world face persistent gaps in opportunity. This is both a social and an economic issue, because economic potential is lost when many of our youth do not have access to safe environments, high quality education and employment opportunities.
This project focuses on ways to eradicate disparities in education and their consequences for labour market opportunities. In particular, it uses data from innovative inclusion policies in Chile, a country characterized by high income inequality, to find ways to close these opportunity gaps early on, i.e., before university enrolment and labour market entry. The goal of this research is not only to provide a scientific evaluation of educational policies in Chile, but also to draw practical public policy lessons that can be useful to any country.
To achieve this, the project combines exceptionally detailed data with structural modelling. Most of the data have already been or will be collected by the Chilean Ministry of Education in Chile. They will be complemented with a small data collection carried out by the candidate at a minimal cost, leveraging on established relationships with research users in-country. Structural modelling is the analysis of the mechanisms through which policies work. It is what allows us to extrapolate, from specific contexts, general conclusions that are applicable to many countries.
The project addresses three related research questions. First, it evaluates an affirmative action programme called PACE (Programa de Acceso Efectivo y Acompanamiento a la Educacion Superior), which guarantees admission to university to the best students in disadvantaged high schools in Chile. The study will use a Randomized Control Trial that exploits the planned programme roll-out to scientifically evaluate programme effectiveness and to identify the key ingredients for inclusion policy success.
Second, it determines if differences exist in the effectiveness of the pilot programme for PACE, the Propedeutico programme, between high schools that do and that do not stream students of similar ability into the same classes. In doing so, the study extends our understanding of the role of tracking and peers in the production of achievement. For example, findings will determine if students compete more fiercely for university admission when they are in classrooms with similar peers.
Third, it evaluates the impact of higher education on disadvantaged youth. To do so, it uses cut-off rules for university admission to apply a policy evaluation technique known as regression discontinuity. The benefits of higher education on the academic and labour market outcomes of disadvantaged youths are not well understood because very few poor students are observed enrolling in university. Because these are the very students that inclusion policies target, evaluating the benefits for them is of paramount importance for policy makers and researchers.
This project's goal is to maximise the returns of investing in the lives of young people. This not only reduces the vast human cost of inequality, but it also increases aggregate earnings and economic growth. Due to the candidate's network in academia and in the public sector in Chile (including in the Chilean Ministry of Education), the results of the study can have a direct and immediate impact on the educational policy discourse in Chile. Over the years, the Chilean Governments have shown willingness to enact reforms that have a strong evidence-base. Therefore, potentially hundreds of thousands of poor children in Chile can be directly affected in the short term. Other countries could then follow the Chilean example, amplifying the potential impact to millions of underprivileged and talented children around the world.

This project's goal is to maximise the returns of investing in the lives of young people by deriving specific lessons for inclusion policies in education and disseminating the findings among key policy makers.
Direct beneficiaries of the research are: the Chilean Ministry of Education, the coordinators of the PACE and UNESCO-Propedeutico inclusion programmes, the directors of the PACE and UNESCO-Propedeutico programmes at participating universities, and the teachers, principals and students at the many high schools currently involved and soon to be involved in these programmes. Indirect beneficiaries are policy makers interested in closing opportunity gaps around the world, and the millions of disadvantaged and talented children targeted by their policies.

The Ministry of Education in Chile and the coordinators of the inclusion programmes will benefit from the research's findings in two ways. First, the findings will provide direction on how the design of these inclusion policies can be improved cost-effectively. The project builds on initial results from the UNESCO-USACH Propedéutico pilot programme, and performs a rigorous evaluation of the full programme roll-out. The evaluation's structural modelling will build a comprehensive understanding of the drivers of PACE's impact, and generate concrete recommendations for improvement. Over the years, the Chilean Governments have shown willingness to enact reforms that have a strong evidence-base. The candidate and her collaborators are building a strong network within the public sector to ensure impact. For example, the consultant on the project, Ms. Ranjita Rajan, is engaging key staff at the Ministry of Education, including the vice Minister Valentina Quiroga, to build awareness of the project among key stakeholders and decision makers. Therefore, the findings have the potential to directly influence the political discourse in Chile over inclusion policies. As a result of improved programme design, teachers, principals and thousands of students at participating high schools will benefit directly. Given the Government's plan to expand this type of policies, potentially hundreds of thousands of poor Chilean students will be affected by the findings of the study.

Second, the Ministry and programme coordinators will benefit from the evaluation of the impact of university attendance on disadvantaged youths, one of the three research questions addressed in the project. In particular, the findings should provide a strong evidence-based on the case for these inclusion programmes. The current lack of scientific evidence may hinder the Government in its (costly) plan to expand these programmes.

Moreover, academics from various disciplines in Chile who are currently studying these programmes will benefit from the quantitative analysis generated by the project. For example, one of the Chilean collaborators of the candidate from the Department of Anthropology of the University of Santiago, Antonio Garcia Quiroga, is performing a qualitative evaluation that will be nicely complemented by the quantitative one generated by the project. Prof. Quiroga and his team are seeking funding from their Government for their project. Our international and interdisciplinary collaboration will undoubtedly make for a stronger case, facilitating their project's completion. This should amplify the impact of this project by promoting interdisciplinary complementarities.

More broadly, the project will contribute to the literatures on affirmative action in education, development of human capital, inequalities in education and in the labour markets, and peer effects. Researchers from Education, Economics, Sociology and Anthropology interested in these topics will benefit from the project's novel findings.