Tendencia Económica. Informe Mensual de Fedesarrollo. No. 172

Abstract

Accreditation is the method par excellence to ensure and stimulate the quality of higher education. International experience has shown that it has important effects on the strengthening of educational institutions and represents benefits for students. In Colombia, although quality accreditation of higher education institutions (IES) started with relative dynamism in 2002 and for programs began to be implemented in the late 1990s, fifteen years later, the figures reveal that accreditation levels are still quite low and the process has been stagnating. For this reason, it is urgent that the responsible authorities take the actions required to unlock the accreditation process, but, under no circumstances, reducing the demands on quality.

Although there is progress in the coverage of ICETEX, where 22% of young people entering higher education currently have access to student credits when in 2003 this percentage was around 15%, this is still low. However, the purpose of expanding ICETEX coverage presents two major problems: (i) the entity is heavily dependent on National Budget resources; and (ii) ICETEX can only extend credits to students in accredited institutions or programs. This suggests that the government should act to unlock the accreditation process, as well as take steps to diversify the funding sources of ICETEX, where the development of securitization of student credits is one of the options with greater viability.