What Makes a Program Good ? Evidence from Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean

Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs) can play a central role in skill development andhigher education expansion, yet their quality varies greatly within and among countries. This paper explores therelationship between programs’ practices and inputs (quality determinants) and student academic and labor marketoutcomes. It designs and conduct a novel survey to collect program-level information on quality determinants andaverage outcomes for Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Peru. Categories of quality determinantsinclude training and curriculum, infrastructure, faculty, link with productive sector, costs and funding, andpractices on student admission and institutional governance. The paper also collects administrative, student-level dataon higher education and formal employment for SCP students in Brazil and Ecuador and match it to survey data. Machinelearning methods are used to select the quality determinants that predict outcomes at the program and student levels.Estimates indicate that some quality determinants may favor academic and labor market outcomes while others may hinderthem. Two practices predict improvements in all labor market outcomes in Brazil and Ecuador—teaching numericalcompetencies and providing job market information—and one practice—teaching numerical competencies—additionallypredicts improvements in labor market outcomes for all survey countries. Since quality determinants account for20-40 percent of the explained variation in student-level outcomes, quality determinants might have a role shrinkingprogram quality gaps. Findings have implications for the design and replication of high-quality SCPs, theirregulation, and the development of information systems.