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In response to growing demands from the 2011 student movement, Chile implemented a free higher education (FHE) reform in 2016, signalling a shift away from its traditional neoliberal market policies. The introduction of FHE appears paradoxical within a neoliberal context, as Chilean education had become an extreme example of market intensification. This paper, therefore, aims to examine how FHE transitioned from being an unimaginable policy to a core element of higher education (HE) reform. It examines the conditions that made FHE possible, with particular attention to the discursive arrangements for ‘emplotting’ the public narrative of FHE. Specifically, it inquires how and why an ostensibly incompatible FHE policy gains discursive traction within a predominantly neoliberal framework. To do this, this study analysed the public debate in mainstream newspapers between 2003 and 2016, alongside interviews with key HE actors concerning the discursive articulation of FHE. Our analysis suggests that the FHE policy has emerged as an institutional arrangement that reinforces neoliberal logics by way of extending free access to accredited HEIs. The FHE policy has developed as an institutional framework that redefines neoliberal market relations by introducing elements that could be considered as policy reversal.

About the speakers

Francisco Zamorano Figueroa is a Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow at King’s College London. His research lies at the intersection of sociology, the sociology of education, and policy analysis, with a particular interest in how discourses and institutional arrangements shape educational reform. He examines the political and cultural dimensions of education policy, especially in contexts marked by inequality and neoliberal governance. He has collaborated as an expert in higher education with universities in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Chile, contributing to research in areas related to equity, governance, and policy change. He has also worked as a policy analyst at the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-IESALC), where he supported regional initiatives focused on higher education systems and their role in advancing social justice and development across Latin America.

Diego Santori is a Senior Lecturer in education and society at King’s College London. His research interests include the relationships between education policy, economics and subjectivity and the ways in which their interpenetration produce new cultural forms and practices. His work has appeared in leading academic journals and major international collections such as the World Yearbook of Education 2016, theInternational Handbook on Ethnography of Education‏, and the Handbook of Global Policy and Policy-Making in Education. He has recently published The Quantified School: Pedagogy subjectivity and Metrics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). He has also served as a panel member for prestigious funding bodies such as UKRI, as Associate Editor for Critical Studies in Education, board member of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, and advisory board member of Defend Digital Me.