Managerial practices in the student experience in England and Chile: an organizational translation perspective

The article analyses how universities in England and Chile govern the student experience under marketization and managerial expansion. Using systems theory and translation studies, it compares a selection of public, research-oriented universities through interviews with senior and operational staff and institutional strategic documents. English universities deploy integrated management frameworks that link student experience to performance, reputation and employability. Chilean universities, in turn, embed student support in highly formalised regulatory and planning architectures tied to national quality assurance and statutory mandates. In both systems, student experience is governed through structured interventions, coordination mechanisms and formalised expectations, though legal codification is more pronounced in Chile. The study shows managerialism as a flexible mode of coordination, enacted through copying and addition of context specific devices, modulated by distinct national regulatory environments.