Unimaginable policies: from savage market orthodoxy to free HE in Chile

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.