ABSTRACT
Background: During 2006, Chilean universities had 586,000 students, corresponding to 41 percent of the population aged 18 to 23 years. Aim: To evaluate the situation of health care teaching in Chile. Material and Methods: Data from 6,212 careers were elaborated, considering the area of knowledge taught, level of teaching, geography, number and type of students, admission and tuition fees. Results: There are 537 programs for health care teaching in Chile. Of these, 231 are for nursing or dentistry aide personnel. The system has 60,648 matriculated students and it collected a total of US$250 millions in tuition fees. Only 9,8 percent of programs are accreditated. The students who chose health careers had the highest scores in the National University Selection Examination or PSU. Between 2000 and 2006, there was a significant increase in the number of medical students and every year, 1,000 new physicians will receive their title. During 2007, 1,634 new posts were offered in medical schools, 3,873 in nursing and 5,671 for kinesiology. Conclusions: There is a disharmonic growth of University teaching in Chile, that will solve historical deficits of professionals such as nurses but will introduce important changes in Chilean medicine.