Admission 2023: Medicine and health careers consolidate as the most demanded after the pandemic

At 12 noon this Tuesday, 187,225 people -25.7% more than in the previous process- learned the results of their applications to one of the 45 universities attached to the University Admission Access System.

According to figures from the Undersecretary of Higher Education, for this process there were 151,522 vacancies -3% more than in 2022-, spread over more than 2,000 programs offered. In this line, qualified applicants increased 36.8%. It is worth noting that this year the requirements changed and with this the number of valid applications could have been modified, which is not the same as people actually enrolled. They are, specifically, data about enabled preferences.

“Through the changes generated both by the Committee of the University Subsystem, and by our undersecretary, we have been able to show an improvement in the students qualified to enter higher education, in addition to the increase in applications, which demonstrates the interest of the student body in continuing their educational trajectory”, says Undersecretary Verónica Figueroa.

On average, they pointed out from the undersecretariat, the participants marked 8.1 preferences to apply, with the understanding that for this year the number of options was increased from 10 to 20. And there the ten most postulated careers were Medicine, Psychology, Nursing, Law, Obstetrics and Child Care, Kinesiology, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Business Engineering and Medical Technology.

Medicine, in addition to being the career with the most applications at the country level, is also the career that has the most applications for each available vacancy, with 37. It is followed by far, Obstetrics and Childcare, with 15 applications for each vacancy.

The foregoing goes hand in hand with the fact that, according to the area of ​​knowledge, careers in Health & Wellness they took 27.4% of preferenceswell above the 17.3% of those related to Business Administration and Law and 16.5% of those related to Engineering, Industry and Construction.

These figures are endorsed by what is reported in detail by the study houses themselves.

Such is the case of the Catholic U.where, in descending order, their careers with the most applications were Medicine (went from 1,763 in 2022 to 7,804 in 2023), Psychology, Law, Nursing and Engineering. In that order, the total number of applications received by the PUC in the health area was 16,498 for the present admission, little more than double the 8,037 of the previous year. The situation was similar in the University of Chilewhere all their careers in the health area rose in applications (from 6,310 to 23,293 a general level). Here, in order of preference, their most desired races, as in 2022, were PsychologyMedicine, Law, Common Plan Engineering and Commercial Engineering.

They are not, yes, the only ones. The U. Finis Terrae rose from 1,812 applications to Medicine in 2022 to 5,522 for the same race in the present process. The same institution, in fact, increased from 3,443 applications to health careers in 2022 to 10,690 in 2023. In this case, in addition to Medicine, his five most applied careers include Psychology, Nursing, Dentistry and Kinesiology.

For his part, from the U. Andes point out that his most postulated career was also Medicine: from 472 in 2022 to 1,761 in 2023. Then followed Law, Business Engineering, Psychology and Engineering.

But, are all these increases in preference for health careers in any way related to the pandemic? Everything indicates that yes, what was already reported in 2022 – that as a side effect of the health crisis, enrollment in this area had risen 8.2% in recent years – is now consolidated.

“It is possible that the Covid-19 has brought people closer to the importance and prestige of health careers, which in the case of the pandemic gives them more visibility,” says Antonio Vukusich, dean of the UAndes School of Medicine, who adds that “health is the second concern of the community. It is an issue that can only grow in the future, because the population is aging”.

In turn, Alberto Dougnac, Dean of Medicine at the UFT, says that the increase in applications for health careers is due to “to the impact that the pandemic had, I have no doubt” and that this increase has also meant a greater field of employment for many of those who graduate. “Society saw everything that the health area meant and all the professionals involved (…). There was a lot of prestige and all the work they did was visible, ”he points out.

In this line, Luis Castillo, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the U. Autónoma agrees and believes that the phenomenon is related to two situations: “A very high valuation of health careers product of the great contribution that health professionals have made during the pandemic and because there is an implicit social recognition of careers, especially medicine, by society: they are professionals, generally the best students in the country, who put on at the service of the people”.

In the U. San Sebastianmeanwhile, have the most chosen careers Medicine, Obstetrics and Psychology. The first, in fact, increased from 5,620 effective applications in 2022 between its headquarters in Santiago, Concepción and Valdivia to 9,392 in 2023.

Carlos Pérez, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Science of said house of studies, states that this is indeed a trend that had already been observed a few years ago and that accelerated during the pandemic “because all health careers became much more visible and they became much more attractive to many future students.”

Similarly, in the U. Andrés Bello report an increase of 183% in applications to health careers: from 8,727 in 2022 to 24,668 in 2023. Unab follows the trend of other institutions and has Medicine as the most applied career (9,856 applicants), followed by Psychology (4,268), Nursing (3,533), Obstetrics (3,392) and Dentistry ( 2540).

Meanwhile, from the U. Mayor reveal that their five most applied careers were Medicine (5,163 people), Psychology (4,303), Nursing (3,722), Midwifery and Child Care (3,440) and Veterinary Medicine (2,380). All increased in the comparison of the previous process. “We are very satisfied with the result of the applications, since we have 92% more students who trusted our educational project,” says the rector Patricio Manque in this regard.

This year, they add from the U. Diego Portalesthe careers of the faculties of Medicine, Health and Dentistry, as well as Education, had a significant increase in applications. “In the case of the Medicine careers (the most postulated), Dentistry, Medical Technology, Nursing, Obstetrics and Neonatology and Kinesiology had an increase of 321%”, they point out from the institution.

Towards regions other than the Metropolitan the situation does not change. In the University of Valparaisothe careers with the most applications were Medicine with 3,518, Psychology with 1,581, Obstetrics and Child Care with 1,373, Nursing with 1,338 and Dentistry with 1,117. Here, in general, applications for health careers also increased. “We have had historical applications in various careers, such as the area of ​​health, psychology and law,” says the rector Osvaldo Corrales.

In the University of AntofagastaMeanwhile, the careers with the most effective applications -and also with a marked increase compared to 2022- were Medicine (1,369 versus 560 in 2022), Nursing (682 versus 262), Phonoaudiology (698 versus 285), Obstetrics (570 versus 205) and Kinesiology (523 versus 156). Health careers also saw their applications increase at the U. de Talca, going from 3,009 in 2022 to 10,284 in 2023. Meanwhile, in the UC of Temucowhere they do not offer Medicine, their most chosen careers were Psychology, Veterinary Medicine, Medical Technology, Law and Architecture, although their health careers did follow the trend: they went from 814 applicants in 2022 to 3,788 in 2023, which implies an increase of 365%.

The situation is similar in the U. de Concepción, where all their careers raised the applications, being the most sought after Medicine, Psychology, Nursing, Obstetrics and Child Care and Dentistry. In the U. AustralMeanwhile, their most desired careers were Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Psychology and Obstetrics and Child Care, with a marked increase from year to year.

In addition to the health area, pedagogy careers experienced an increase in applicants and selected. This is a good sign in the midst of a crisis of lack of teachers in Chile.

In detail, for 2022, applicants for teaching careers increased by 53.8%, which translates into 29,872 people. Those selected, yes, were more than 13 thousand, which also implies a 51.5% increase compared to the previous periodwhen there were about 8,700.

The undersecretariat also revealed that 83.1% of those selected in pedagogy careers applied to these careers within their first three preferences, while 58.6% were selected in a pedagogy career in their first preference.

In greater depth, most of the pedagogy careers increased their selections compared to the previous year, being the ones that grew the most are those of Pedagogy in Differential Education (80%), Pedagogy in Sciences (77%) and Pedagogy in Physical Education (73%).

“All of the above shows that there is a greater interest in applying for pedagogy careers,” they said in their analysis from the Undersecretary of Higher Education.