A territorial view of the Chilean university system. The case of the regional University of Aysén (UAY)

Abstract

The analysis of the case of the University of Aysén presented in this work allows us to describe and understand some of the difficulties that regional universities in Chile have in relation with their territory and their impact on local development. This problem, which shows the inequality and weakness of the Chilean education system, appears continually in various national and international assessments. Our thesis is that these difficulties are one of the many expressions of the persistence of a center-periphery cleavage manifested in a territorial insensitivity or centralist paradigm in public policies in Chile, which have been oriented towards homogeneous and centralist responses in response to different needs and territorial realities. This situation happens regardless of the political orientation of the government (democratic or authoritarian) or the pre-eminence of state or market planning as a regulator of the system.