This article examines the different roles the State/government plays in coordinating the Chilean higher education system. It proposes a conceptual and analytical framework based on a multi-governance approach, which considers multi-level, multi-actor and multi-agenda dimensions. This framework is used to study the different roles played by the State in higher education governance in Chile, especially after the 2018 legislative reforms. The results show an increase in the State's influence on system coordination and that the State/government has strengthened its role as regulator, evaluator and funder of higher education. Similarly, from a multi-level dimension perspective, the results show that the governance of higher education in Chile is highly centralised. At the same time, despite centralising decision-making, the Chilean higher education system is seen as highly complex from a multistakeholder and multi-agency perspective. Lastly, we suggest using this conceptual approach to provide valuable insights for the study of the complexity of governance in higher education systems in other Latin American contexts.