DT 09-23 Taking advantage of COVID-19? Online learning, descentralization and tertiary education

Distance to university has been shown as an important factor for students’ decisions to continue studying after secondary school and for their academic outcomes. Therefore, the generalized shift to online learning could have opened a window of opportunity for those students living in places lacking a university campus. Following a difference-in-differences strategy, I compare students that already lived in an area with or close to the university (control group) with students that live far away (treated). I take advantage of the institutional setting in Uruguay, where the public university is free and without entrance exam but with campuses only in half of the territory. The data come from administrative records for the period 2017-2021. Results show less adverse effects in terms of dropouts for the treated freshmen students of 2020 but no effects on other academic outcomes conditional on dropout. In addition, I find an enrollment increase in localities without university campuses for 2021.