La Carrera de Odontología en el Contexto Actual de la Educación Superior Chilena

La carrera de Odontologia se ha constituido en un fiel reflejo de lo que sucede actualmente en la educacion superior en Chile: esta en crisis, al igual que todo el Sistema de Educacion. La "Ley General de Universidades", promulgada en 1981, exalta la "libertad de ensenanza" dejando sin embargo en manos del mercado la oferta y regulacion de la educacion. La transformacion desde un Estado garante de la educacion como un derecho, a lo que sucede hoy donde la educacion es un bien de consumo donde los estudiantes son clientes y las instituciones educacionales prestadoras de servicio y cuyo principal objetivo es la ganancia por el servicio prestado, ha desencadenado consecuencias que resultan en extremo preocupantes, especialmente en nuestra disciplina. La carrera de Odontologia forma profesionales fuertemente ligados a las necesidades de salud del pais y de las personas menos privilegiadas, y posee un alto prestigio transversal en la sociedad chilena. Sin embargo, hoy es una de las carreras en Chile con mayor aumento de matriculas y titulacion, con los mayores costos de aranceles para los estudiantes y sus familias y con una escasa regulacion de la acreditacion necesaria para impartirla y, por lo tanto, con muchas de sus escuelas de cuestionable calidad. Adicionalmente, la sobreoferta de profesionales ha provocado que estemos siendo testigos de las primeras generaciones de odontologos desempleados o con una importante precarizacion de sus trabajos. En este contexto, resulta imprescindible abordar a fondo la crisis estructural del sistema de educacion superior en Chile, que afecta directamente a la educacion odontologica, para que sus objetivos principales esten nuevamente entrelazados con las necesidades de las personas, de la sociedad y del pais. Estos son algunos de los desafios de transformacion que necesita de manera imperiosa nuestro sistema de educacion superior en general y la carrera de Odontologia en particular.(AU) The status of dentistry in Chile is accurately reflected by that of the country's higher education system in general ­ crisis. The "Higher Education Act" passed in 1981, and kept in force for more than three decades, exalts a "freedom of education" but leaves the realization and regulation of this idea in the hands of the free market. The resulting transformation has led from the State guaranteeing education as a fundamental right to education being treated as a consumer good, with the students as clients and educational institutions as suppliers whose objective is to turn a profit. This ideological shift has triggered a number of highly troubling consequences, especially in the field of dentistry. From a cultural perspective, dentistry was founded with an objective to train professionals strongly aligned with the health needs of the country and of the less privileged, which has resulted in the prestigious position that dentists transversally hold across Chilean society. The current rates of dentistry program enrollment and graduation are among the fastest growing within Chilean higher education. However, dentistry programs also have some of the highest financial costs for students and their families, and limited regulation in terms of accreditation means that many dentistry schools are of questionable quality. Additionally, the oversupply of dentistry graduates has meant that Chile is now witness to the first generations of unemployed or underemployed dentists. Considering this current situation, an in-depth analysis of the structural crisis within Chile's higher education system is essential. This crisis directly affects dentistry education, and realignment is needed to bring this field back to its foundation of focusing on the needs of people, the society, and the country. These are some of the transformational challenges facing the Chilean higher education system in general and dentistry education in particular.(AU)