MEANINGS AND DISCOURSES ON QUALITY, SELF-EVALUATION AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCREDITATION IN UNIVERSITIES, PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES AND TECHNICAL TRAINING CENTERS IN CHILE

Chile is experiencing transformations typical of a complex society that stress a mixed and differentiated higher education system that exhibits public and private institutions of varied orientations and heterogeneous results, putting quality at the center of the debate. There are advances in self-regulation but there are deficiencies that have deferred the perspective of actors without consolidating a culture of quality. A qualitative study describes the meanings and expectations of authorities, teachers and students regarding the culture of quality in Chile and accreditation system in public and private institutions. The differences between the studied states are expressed in different discourses from the most favorable to refractory positions towards the model, the pertinence of the regulations, their bases of legitimacy and the implications for modifications to the system.