El Ciudadano
Original article: El negocio del CAE no afloja: monto de aranceles financiados alcanza máximo histórico en 2025
The Ingresa Commission, responsible for managing the State-Guaranteed Credit (CAE), presented its public report for 2025, revealing that the total amount of tuition fees financed through this credit system for higher education has reached an all-time high in 2025.
According to the report, 1,337,000 individuals have applied for the CAE since its inception in 2006 through to 2025.
The report also noted that last year, a total of 59,600 students completed the allocation process for financing and signed their respective loan contracts. This figure reflects an increase of 1,500 beneficiaries compared to 2024.
With this number of new beneficiaries (59,600), the total amount of funded tuition fees reached 155.8 billion pesos ($), marking the highest level since the allocations started in 2006, while the Treasury increasingly bears the burden of debt, arrears, and state guarantees…
«This can be attributed to the adjustments in the real and reference tuition fees, reflecting the overall rise in living costs (considering the significant price variations between 2020 and 2022) and the increased cost of education in particular,» stated the Commission.
Regarding the total new credits granted, the reported figures indicate that 55% of the accumulated amount has been allocated to cover the tuition fees of individuals identifying as female. Specifically, in 2025, financing requests from this group amounted to approximately $82.6 billion pesos, while those from individuals identifying as male totaled $68.2 billion.
Over 1 Million People in Repayment Phase of CAE
The public report also provided details about the universe of CAE debtors currently in repayment, including those with active payment plans and those with accelerated debts due to prolonged arrears.
By the end of 2025, the total number of debtors in repayment reached 1,029,000 individuals. Of this group, 805,000 are graduates of higher education (78%) and 224,000 are those who left their studies without obtaining a degree (22%).
In terms of the debts owed, the total balance for those under obligation to pay amounts to UF 237 million ($9,678,925,950,000). Of this, 85%, equivalent to UF 201.1 million ($8,208,709,350,000) is owed by graduates, while the remaining 15%, representing UF 36.3 million ($1,482,468,405), corresponds to those who dropped out of their courses.
Meanwhile, disbursements made to partially or fully finance the fees for technical and professional programs constituted a credit portfolio that, as of December 31, 2025, reached a total balance of UF 310 million, equivalent to $12,659,355,300,000.
«Despite this proportional stability, a gradual change has been observed in the dynamics of participation by financial institutions recently,» the Ingresa public report noted.
According to the document, this situation «has been reflected in a decrease in bank participation in the bidding processes for new credits; an increasing sale of their portfolios to the Treasury; and an intensification of guarantee collections associated with the rising default rates of debtors.»
As a result, following the payment of guarantees made by the Treasury and higher education institutions, the state’s participation increased year-on-year by three percentage points, with the following distribution: the Treasury concentrates 71% of resources, banks 22%, and higher education institutions the remaining 7%.
Historic High in Guarantee Collection Rates
Additionally, the agency conducted a study on the guarantee collection rates, defined as the ratio of executed guarantees to the number of debtors in default.
In the case of graduated debtors, the collection rate showed a decline between 2013 and 2014, maintaining an average close to 15% of the total affected with unpaid installments. However, from 2015 onward, especially notable after the pandemic, a sustained growth is evident, reaching 61% in 2020, 69% in 2021, 71% in 2022, 72% in 2023, and 77% in 2024. Finally, in 2025, this rate reached its all-time high, climbing to 84%.
Amid the controversy surrounding the Treasury directly emptying the bank accounts of numerous student loan debtors immediately after they received their salaries, the agency reported that in 2025, the default rate rose by 3% among graduates and 1% among those who dropped out compared to 2024.
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