Chile has a population of 16.5 million, 90 per cent of which lives in urban centres. Despite stretching over 5,000 kilometres from North to South, around three quarters of the population is concentrated in the fertile Central Valley, including the capital city, Santiago, and the nearby conurbation of Valparaiso / Viña del Mar. The metropolitan area of Gran Santiago has a population of over six million. This, together with a centralised system of government, gives Santiago an inevitable pre-eminence in national affairs.
Chile has a stable democracy which has been dominated by a succession of centre-left coalition governments since the end of Pinochet's military rule in 1992. The state institutions are effective and corruption is exceedingly rare.
The economy has developed rapidly. After intense growth in the eighties and nineties, levels stabilised at five per cent per annum in the last decade. In 2007, GDP grew by five per cent following a four per cent growth in 2006. Annual per capita income stood at USD 8,900 in 2007.
Chile is the world's largest exporter of copper and high prices in recent years have contributed to sustained economic growth and a record fiscal surplus in 2007 of over eight per cent of GDP. Foreign investment in 2007 exceeded USD 10 billion, predominantly from the United States and Spain, with eight per cent from the UK. The Peso is widely rated as a robust currency.
Much progress has been made to reduce poverty and extreme poverty has dropped from 13 per cent in the early 1990s to three per cent in 2006. Despite these gains, Chile has marked levels of income inequality amongst the highest in the region. Unemployment stands stubbornly at around eight per cent.
Chile has a mixture of public and private education provision. The government currently spends around five to six per cent of GDP on education.
School education until the age of 18 is compulsory in Chile. Primary education runs for eight years from the ages of six to 14. Secondary education is four years from ages 14 to 18 and is divided between traditional academic schools and technical schools following different standard curricula. Students applying to Chilean universities must sit a national examination on completion of their secondary education.
Schools divide into three categories. Roughly 60 per cent are state schools run directly by the local municipality, 40 per cent are run privately with state funding, and ten per cent are fully private. In total, there are 8,800 primary schools with two million students and 3,400 secondary schools with one million students.
Thirty-five per cent of students continue into higher education in Chile, which is provided by three types of institution. Almost three quarters study at one of the 58 universities, where degree programmes last between three and six years. Forty-two professional institutes take around one fifth of students in technical degrees of three to four years. The remainder attend one of the 105 technical training centres which offer two-year courses.
The 58 universities can be divided into the 25 traditional 'public' universities and the 33 newer private universities. Of the 'public' universities, most are state run, although a smaller number of mainly Catholic foundations are independent with state funding. The traditional universities enjoy greater prestige and are represented by their influential Rector's Committee. However, many private universities are now also highly regarded. Despite growing numbers, a handful of public and private universities (mainly in Santiago) currently dominate the market in terms of student numbers and programmes offered.
The demand for higher education is growing: The OECD has predicted that over 80,000 students will be enrolled by 2010. The rise in student numbers is reflected in a significant increase in postgraduate study. An estimated 3,000 students completed postgraduate study in 2007, an increase of around 75 per cent in five years. There has also been a rapid diversification of courses on offer, many linked directly to US or European universities. The number of doctorates remains small – fewer than 150 are obtained each year.
There are two principal concerns regarding university education. The first is the need to rapidly increase the number of scientists, to build technological capacity. The government has stated its ambition to have 1,000 more scientists trained at home and abroad by 2014 and has agreed a loan from the World Bank to help finance this. The second is to break down the traditional degree programmes into more flexible and varied courses of study.
An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Chilean postgraduate students annually receive scholarships to study abroad, ranging in length from one to three years. Funding can be won nationally through the government's International Co-operation Agency, its Science and Technology Commission and through the President of the Republic scholarship programme. Popular countries remain Spain, the US and the UK. Among the countries with a growing presence are Australia, India and Malaysia.
British Council Chile is committed to promoting UK education. We run an education enquiries service which deals with almost 3,000 local queries about studying in the UK to complement the information on our local website. We have a strong collaboration with our European partners to run an annual, high-profile Euro Postgraduate Fair in Santiago and the regions, in which many UK universities participate.
Through our work to promote training for English language teachers and our work in school leadership, we have a good working relationship with the Ministry of Education.
We co-ordinate a programme of language assistants. This links trainee English teachers in Chile with UK schools, and UK students with Chilean universities and other institutions.
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