Council of Rectors acknowledges significant progress in the new financing proposal from the Ministry of Education

26/04/2012
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The executive vice president of CRUCH, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, praised the details of the initiative promoted by the Minister of Education, Harald Beyer. "It is a significant step towards freeing families from debt," stated the rector of the University of Santiago.

In the monthly plenary session of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, the Minister of Education, Harald Beyer, as president of CRUCH, presented to the highest university authorities the proposals of the New Integrated System of Financing for Higher Education Students, announced last Monday, and responded to the concerns of some rectors, especially regarding more specific definitions on the issue of reference fees.

Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi, executive vice president of CRUCH, noted that the Council session recognized significant progress in the Ministry of Education's (MINEDUC) proposal and appreciated Minister Beyer's clarity in coming to explain some details of the proposal face-to-face.

“It is a significant step towards freeing families from debt and students from the burden of studying with the worry of having to pay tuition, at least for a significant number, which is almost 90% of university students,” Zolezzi explained.

The rectors agreed to create a working committee that would draft, as soon as possible, the specific questions about the new financing proposal from the Ministry of Education and would carry out some simulations to show how much this new form of financing would affect the universities of the CRUCH.

Race duration

For his part, Minister Beyer added to the report on the shortening of degree programs – requested from CRUCH in the previous session – a new challenge related to working as a Council of Rectors to reduce dropout rates at their universities.

“The graduation rate in Chile is around 571% for every 100 students who enter university in a year, which gives us a very high dropout rate for the standards needed for a quality education, since the figure is well below the standards of developed countries where the graduation rate fluctuates between 70% and 75%,” said Minister Beyer after leaving the plenary session with the Council.

The rectors' main concern revolved around the gap between reference and actual tuition fees, to which the Secretary of State reiterated his commitment to bring a proposal on how to improve reference tuition fees to the next meeting.

On this issue, Rector Zolezzi stated that he felt calm because, although there was strong concern that this new system could further widen the gap between the two tuition fees, he said he trusted the Minister's words, who said that there would not be a bigger gap than the one that already exists.

Also present at the session was the Head of the Higher Education Division (DIVESUP) of MINEDUC, Juan José Ugarte, who addressed the issue of performance agreements.