Does Quality Make a Difference for Higher Education Graduates in Colombia? Measuring Differences in Accredited and Non-accredited Institutions With Similar Financial Characteristics

Abstract

In this paper we explore the difference of quality in higher education between accredited and non-accredited higher education institutions (HEIs) in Colombia. For that purpose we test if the difference of the National Exam of Student Performance (Saber Pro), which is our proxy for quality between institutional accredited and non-accredited institutions is statistically significant. The hypothesis is that indeed those HEIs that have been granted the institutional quality accreditation by the Colombian ministry of education should have better results in the national exam than those that not. We argue that for robustness of the results, it is necessary to control for confounding effects among comparable HEIs. For this purpose, we employ a propensity matching score approach based on common financial characteristics in order to avoid issues of selection bias. Our results find that the difference in performance between accredited and non-accredited institutions is positive and statistically significant. This difference between performances can be attributable to the substantial differences in the pattern of expenditures and asset investment of non-accredited HEIs.