Exploring students' digital competencies in two Chilean Universities: Status, gaps and the contribution of years of study

Research has shown how important is for young people to acquire digital competencies that are necessary to successfully participate in society. Still, it has been reported that university students display poor digital competencies and that inequalities resulting from demographic and social factors persist even among young people who have managed to gain a place in higher education. Thus, the goal of this study was to explore what was the contribution of two universities in both the development of digital competencies and the reduction of gaps associated with students' gender and parents' level of education. We applied a survey to a sample of 411 first- and fourth-year students at two Chilean universities, whose results were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. Students showed a greater development of competencies related to Collaboration in digital environments and Searching for information. Their performance in competencies related to Production of content was, in comparison to these, worse. First-generation students reported lower levels of digital competencies than their peers whereas female students reported greater digital competencies than male ones. These gaps were present both within first- and fourth-year students. We conclude by noting the challenges universities face when training digital competencies among their students and highlight the need to develop, for the specific socio-cultural context of this study, teaching programs catering to the specific needs of first-generation male students.