Discourse Analysis of the Educational Offer in Web Pages of Chilean Universities: The Case of Nursing

Introduction. The massification of enrollment in universities makes them compete for more applicants, generating a differentiation between careers. Nursing exemplifies this process of expansion of tertiary education in Chile. In this context, there is little evidence of how the careers are positioned and what differences in language resources are used in the advertising discourse. Objective. To analyze the discourse based on the theory of valuation of nursing careers in websites and to identify the differentiation valuation resources in them. Methodology. It is a descriptive interpretative study. A corpus of 41 Nursing websites was reviewed with a description of texts, identification of valuation resources, and determination of the meanings of valuation dimensions. Results. Nursing careers use marketing in which the characteristics of the (consumer) product and the promise of the future stand out over those discourses oriented to formative-educational aspects (such as the quality of teaching or the humanistic emphasis). However, there are differences in the discourses when using valuation resources. In universities belonging to the Council of Rectors (CRUCH), prestige is highlighted, while in private universities (NO-CRUCH), all resources are used to ensure their brand distinction to applicants. Recommendations. Although the universities differ in their strategies (prestige/brand), they aim at the same practice of attracting students. Future studies are recommended to analyze the coherence between the discourse of the offer, the quality of the educational training received, and the control of the veracity of advertising messages in education.