Inequality in writing competence at higher education in Colombia: with linear hierarchical models

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the factors that determine the inequality in writing competence at higher education in Colombia. A linear hierarchical econometric model was estimated for obtaining the factors that determine the quality in higher education. Quality was used as a proxy through the results in the Saber Pro test in writing competence for the year 2014. The main results were that there is inequality in quality between the groups of students (90%), universities (5.8%), departments (2.3%), and regions (1.9%), where the first group presents the biggest gap. The factors that determine the difference in writing competence are: personal (being a woman, unmarried, and the value of the tuition); family (occupation of the mother and father, having benefit in health, having dependents, being granted a scholarship, having a greater number of academic credits, among others; and regional (dwelling in regions with high levels of poverty)