Procedures: how a student defends themselves in Chile

This guide explains, with sources, what stages the formal procedure has when a Chilean university accuses you of plagiarism or academic fraud on the strength of a detector, and where Descargo fits in each. Spain and Colombia are in procedures.md, Mexico in procedures-mx.md, Argentina in procedures-ar.md, and Peru in procedures-pe.md.

This is not legal advice. It is public information put in order. Every fact carries its source and the date a person checked it by reading the official text. What could not be checked is marked to verify. Every university also has its own rules, which take precedence over the general ones: read yours in full before replying to anything.

A detector's percentage is an indication, not a sanction. To sanction you, the university has to open a procedure and let you defend yourself within it.

What applies (checked 2026-11-08)

The Constitución, art. 19, no. 3 (LeyChile, last amended 2026-04-16), guarantees to everyone that:

• «Toda persona tiene derecho a defensa jurídica en la forma que la ley señale» (everyone has the right to legal defence in the manner the law provides).

• «Corresponderá al legislador establecer siempre las garantías de un procedimiento y una investigación racionales y justos» (it is for the legislature always to establish the guarantees of a rational and fair procedure and investigation).

This guide has not found a national law that sets the disciplinary procedure for students, so the stages, the deadlines and the offences come from your university's own rules. We read Ley 21.091 (on Higher Education), in whose text no disciplinary regime for students was found, and Ley 21.369, which does require procedures "based on the rules of due process" (art. 6, letter a), but only for sexual harassment, gender-based violence and discrimination: not for plagiarism. What follows is the example of the Universidad de Chile. Use it to know what to look for in yours, not as if it were yours.

Example: the Universidad de Chile

Sources:

• The Reglamento de Jurisdicción Disciplinaria de los Estudiantes (Regulation on the Disciplinary Jurisdiction over Students), Decreto Universitario Exento N.º 0026685, of 2019-06-28. The university links it on its page of applicable rules. That copy is a scan, so the text was read in the copy of the Facultad de Medicina, on the same domain.

• The Reglamento de Estudiantes (Student Regulation), Decreto Universitario N.º 007586, of 1993 (text on the Senado Universitario's website).

What counts as an offence

You are answerable when you breach «algún deber o prohibición estudiantil» (some student duty or prohibition) of the Reglamento de Estudiantes or of the applicable university rules (disciplinary regulation, art. 1). One of those duties is:

«Reconocer el origen y autoría de las ideas y resultados tanto propios como ajenos/as, según las normas y convenciones académicas de cada disciplina»

(To acknowledge the origin and authorship of ideas and results, both one's own and others', according to the academic norms and conventions of each discipline.) (Reglamento de Estudiantes, art. 3, no. 6). It is the duty usually invoked for plagiarism. Note that it speaks of the norms and conventions of your discipline: if you cited according to them, it is an argument for your defence (descargos).

The sanctions run, from least to most serious, from a written warning to permanent expulsion (art. 29). Among them is the cancellation of the course related to the facts, «sin efectos de reprobación» (without the effect of a fail) (art. 29, letter e). The sanction must «guardar proporcionalidad con la infracción cometida» (be proportionate to the offence committed) (art. 30). The disciplinary power lapses four years after the facts (art. 39).

Two procedures: ordinary and simplified

The deadlines are in administrative working days: Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and the university's annual holiday period are not counted (art. 9). What the regulation does not provide for is governed by the Ley 19.880, on administrative procedures (art. 43). The authority of your unit, normally the dean, opens the procedure (art. 2).

Ordinary procedure (arts. 12 to 18), when an investigation is needed:

1. Investigating officer (fiscal). The authority appoints a fiscal who investigates (art. 13), with broad powers during the investigation period (art. 14).

2. Charges. If there are «fundamentos serios» (serious grounds), the fiscal draws up charges with a description of the facts «de forma concreta y precisa» (in a concrete and precise manner) and the rules that would have been breached, and you are given a complete digital copy of the file (art. 15).

3. Defence (descargos). You have ten days from notification of the charges to submit your defence and to request or submit evidence. If you request evidence, the evidence period lasts five days at most. You must specify which fact you want to prove with each measure (art. 16).

4. Hearing. A hearing of proposals, defences and observations, before the authority: the fiscal presents their proposal and then you or your representative speak (art. 17).

5. Resolution. Within five days. It must be «debidamente fundada» (duly reasoned) and assess the evidence according to «las reglas de la sana crítica» (the rules of sound critical judgment) (art. 18).

Simplified procedure (arts. 19 to 22): the authority may use it when it has been possible to verify «la existencia y autoría» (the existence and authorship) of the facts with written testimony, «documentos fidedignos» (reliable documents) or other conclusive evidence (art. 19). You have ten days from notification to submit your defence and evidence (art. 21).

If they open a simplified procedure against you on the strength of a detector report, ask how that report verifies authorship. A similarity or AI percentage does not say who wrote the text: it is a point for your defence.

Appeal (arts. 32 to 35)

1. Against the resolution you can lodge a reasoned appeal (recurso de apelación) before the same authority that issued it, within ten days of notification. You can ask for a hearing to argue your case and submit supporting material, but not further evidence measures (art. 32).

2. The Comité de Apelaciones proposes a decision within five days, and the Rector decides within ten. That resolution «no podrá ser objeto de posterior recurso» (cannot be the subject of any further appeal) within the university (art. 35).

In addition, the act that ends the procedure is subject to the «control preventivo de legalidad» (prior legality review) of the Contraloría Universitaria (art. 11).

If the university does not respect your rights

The recurso de protección (protection action) (Constitución, art. 20) allows anyone who suffers, «por causa de actos u omisiones arbitrarios o ilegales» (because of arbitrary or unlawful acts or omissions), the deprivation, disturbance or threat of certain constitutional rights to go «a la Corte de Apelaciones respectiva» (to the relevant Court of Appeal). According to the Supreme Court's auto acordado that regulates it (Acta 94-2015, consolidated text), it is filed «dentro del plazo fatal de treinta días corridos» (within the strict deadline of thirty calendar days) from the act or from when the person had «conocimiento cierto» (certain knowledge) of it (no. 1).

What two recent Supreme Court rulings say (according to press reports, not the text of the judgments):

• In Rol 4309-2026 (2026-03-23, a fine on a lecturer at the Universidad de Concepción), the deadline was counted from when the person learned that the reposición had been rejected, not from the original sanction: the action, filed three months after that rejection, was declared out of time (report).

• In Rol 8.270-2026 (a school, not a university), the Court ruled out that a complaint to the Superintendencia de Educación suspended or interrupted the deadline, and counted the thirty days from when the person learned of the sanction (report).

The two rulings do not say the same about an internal appeal that is still pending, and neither concerns a student sanctioned for plagiarism. As prudent advice, not a rule drawn from a norm: do not assume the internal appeal extends the deadline; count the thirty calendar days from the first notification, and see a professional as soon as you are notified.

To verify: which of the rights listed in art. 20 can be invoked against a university sanction.

To verify

• Whether any other national law exists on the disciplinary procedure for students, besides the two read (21.091 and 21.369).

• The regime of private universities and of the other state universities: each has its own regulation.

• How the deadline for the recurso de protección is counted when an internal appeal is pending: only the press reports of two rulings (above) have been read, not the judgments, and neither concerns a sanctioned student.

Where Descargo fits

How this was checked

The Constitución and the auto acordado on the recurso de protección were read on LeyChile (the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional) from a browser, because the site rejects automated clients. The Reglamento de Jurisdicción Disciplinaria and the Reglamento de Estudiantes were downloaded from the Universidad de Chile's website. All on 2026-11-08; Ley 21.091 and Ley 21.369, also on LeyChile, on 2026-11-10. The two Supreme Court rulings are known only from the linked press reports (2026-11-10), not from the judgments. The quotations were searched for in the text. Rules change: check this document's date and that the text is still in force before relying on it.

Source text of this guide on GitHub