Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perceptions that a group of public servants in Chile have, on the relationship that takes place between universities and State. To achieve this purpose, a Likert scale survey was applied to an intentioned sample of 93 public officials of different services and departments on a national scale. The questionnaire was composed of two sections: the first one, with 27 questions, sought to evaluate the perception and relation between universities and the institution in which the public official serves; the second one was aimed to identify the perceived differences between the role of private and public universities, within the field of public management. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to present de-mographical data of the sample and frequencies of the survey items were calculated. As a relevant result, it is noteworthy that practically half of the survey respondents believe the government does not make an effort to connect with universities; alongside this finding, and through Student-t testing, the existence of statistical differences was determined between survey respondents perception about public and private universities’ role, rating with better grades the former ones.