Evaluation of policies for disability and social inclusion in Colombian higher education

Abstract

The proportion of people with disabilities in higher education is growing worldwide. However, they continue to face inadequate conditions and discriminatory attitudes that hinder their academic careers. This study evaluates the policy for disability and social inclusion in the Colombian higher education system using the scores and socioeconomic information of students who presented the Saber Pro exam from 2013 to 2016 and 2019, available from the Colombian Institute for the Evaluation of Education (ICFES). During this period, the number of students with disabilities has increased almost five times. In general, they have lower prior academic achievement and inferior socioeconomic conditions (parents’ education and neighborhood's socioeconomic level) compared to students without disabilities. The policy evaluation assesses the academic achievement gap between students with and without disabilities and its reduction over time. The methodological design implements exact matching with propensity score matching and regression adjustment. Results show that, over the years, there has been a reduction in the performance gap, and in 2019, there were no significant differences in scores between students with and without disabilities, except in the quantitative reasoning test. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of policy and institutional improvements for these students and point out routes to improve their academic success.