Abstract:

This study analyzed the effects of providing welfare benefits (such as subsidy, housing, and food), granted by the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and by governmental organisms in Chili, on the academic performance of the students at the same institution. To reach such purpose, we implemented a quantitative investigation to examine institutional databases where 3,204 students, with or without welfare benefits, were registered. The analysis was carried out in an incremental way, from the descriptive aspects to the explanatory methods of the academic performance (understood as the average grading in a specific semester), based on the possession or not of the welfare benefits. The investigation concludes that the students with welfare benefits present an academic performance similar to the students without them, and although this conclusion explains part of the academic performance, the magnitude is unsubstantial (in the time and space analyzed). These results compel to adjust the institutional discourses that justify the existence of these benefits and compel them to investigate their relationship with other factors of importance (beyond the academic performance).

Keywords: Higher education; student benefits; academic performance