The value added of short-cycle higher education programs to student outcomes: Evidence from Colombia

Lelys Dinarte-Diaz, Maria Marta Ferreyra, Tatiana Melguizo and Angelica Sanchez-Diaz

Economics of Education Review, 2024, vol. 101, issue C

Abstract: We estimate the value added of short-cycle higher education programs (two or three years long) to student academic and labor market outcomes. We exploit administrative data from Colombia to control for a rich set of student, peer, and local choice set characteristics. We find that program value added accounts for 60–70 percent of the variation in graduation and labor market outcomes and varies greatly across programs, across and especially within fields of study. Value-added estimates are strongly correlated with the corresponding outcomes but not with other commonly used quality measures. Value-added to labor market outcomes is positively associated with program duration and age, the degree of the provider's specialization, and the size of the city where the program is taught. We caution against the use of program rankings, which appear highly sensitive to the underlying outcome or value-added metric.

Keywords: Short-cycle programs; Value added; Quality; Higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I22 I23 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:101:y:2024:i:c:s0272775724000578

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2024.102563

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