Abstract

The present article has as purpose to analyze the organizational dependency of the unit responsible for the process of institutional accreditation in the chilean universities. For this purpose, a quantitative and descriptive analysis of the accredited Chilean universities, Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities and the Private Universities, to 2015. The above, based on information obtained from the National Accreditation Commission, from the web pages and telephone information from universities. Statistical analyzes included descriptive statistics, contingency tables and multiple correspondence analysis. The results of the study show that in the universities of Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), 72% of the units responsible for institutional accreditation depend on rectory, unlike private universities, which represent 58%. Applying a comparative multiple correspondence analysis between the two types of university, an association is found among those universities whose unit responsible for accreditation process depends on a rectory, presents 4 or 5 years and 3 or 4 areas of accreditation. In addition, the study evidences an association between universities that obtain 5 areas and 6 or 7 years, without being relevant in these cases the type of university. Therefore, the study concluded that the legal nature of an institution, CRUCH or private, is not necessarily associated with better quality. In definitely, the results confirm the hypothesis under study, that is, there is no significant association between the organizational dependency and the results obtained in the accreditation process.

Key words: accreditation; quality; university; higher education