The university selection device
Merit, Science, and Social Justice. (Chile, 1850-2022)

The book addresses the institutional apparatus established to select university applicants, investigating the underlying processes and networks that have shaped it over a 170-year history. It covers both public struggles and controversies, as well as the obscure institutional work of maintaining and repairing instruments and procedures, especially in the face of disruptions that have occurred. The text presents the tensions in the process, the role of experts and university authorities, and the changes that have taken place, seeking to explain phenomena such as the long tenure of the PAA, the continued use of a test as questioned as the PSU, and institutional inertia in undertaking changes. Finally, it raises questions about the future that is now opening up with the PAES.