Chile's Congress approved free higher education in the South American country after more than a decade of campaigning and protests by activists demanding access to free quality universities for all.

The problem stems to 1981, when the fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended free university education in favor of a privatization scheme that drove a wedge between the haves and have-nots.  Universities for the rich kids pulled further and further ahead, while the schools of the poor and working classes fell further behind in terms of quality, facilities, and educational materials.  Three and a half decades later, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says Chile has the fourth most-expensive university system in the world.

But the new Higher Education Law establishes free education for a majority of the country's population, especially those who are economically marginalized.  It sets a framework for make profiteering in education a crime.  Chile's Ministry of Education praised the "end of profit and higher quality through mandatory accreditation".  Lawmakers also passed a second bill to prepare for the influx of new students by doubling the budgets of public universities.

The legislation must now be approved by the Constitutional Court before it can be signed into law by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.