Executive Vice President of CRUCH: “In none of the 25 CRUCH universities is there any appropriation of surpluses, which is what is called profit.”

21/06/2012
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  • Executive Vice President of CRUCH: “In none of the 25 CRUCH universities is there any appropriation of surpluses, which is what is called profit.”
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Representatives of the Council of Rectors attended today's session of the Investigating Commission on the functioning of Higher Education.

Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi described this instance as "a great step forward because although the issue of profit is common knowledge, no state body had put it on the table.".

Representatives of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), led by its executive vice president, Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi, were received today at the National Congress in Santiago by the Investigative Commission on the functioning of Higher Education, chaired by PRI deputy Alejandra Sepúlveda.

The purpose of this meeting was to learn more about the conclusions of the report that the commission submitted this week. The rectors of the CRUCH (Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities) expressed their gratitude for this effort, which sheds light on the issue of profit-making.

After the dialogue, which lasted more than an hour, was concluded, the executive vice president of CRUCH, Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi, stated that this document deals with something very serious and deserves the full attention of the Council, because it has been produced by a branch of the State that has the mission of oversight.

“Today is different from yesterday, and this represents a major step forward because, while the issue of profit in higher education is common knowledge, no state agency had previously addressed it. Today, for the first time, a Chilean state institution has issued a report of great importance to the country, namely, profit in higher education, which could strongly explain the level of debt to which students and their families have been subjected,” he stated.

Zolezzi flatly rejected the notion that any of the 25 institutions belonging to the Council of Rectors could be profit-making, asserting that “in none of the 25 CRUCH universities is there any appropriation of surplus funds, which is what is called profit-making. In particular, we—as state universities—are regulated by the Comptroller General of the Republic and the Transparency Law. CRUCH universities submit reports to the Ministry of Education, our financial statements are audited and made public, as is all other information; therefore, there is absolutely no possibility of such a situation.”.

It was announced that the report will be made public on Friday, June 22nd from 8:00 PM on the website of the Chamber of Deputies (www.camara.cl) and to learn more about its content, the rectors invited Deputy Alejandra Sepúlveda to the next plenary session of the CRUCH, which will be held next Thursday, June 28th at the Federico Santa María University, so that she can present it to the full assembly of rectors in detail.

Congresswoman Alejandra Sepúlveda, for her part, urged people not to draw hasty conclusions from the document and to wait for the full report in order to verify all the people who were invited to participate in its preparation.

“The discussion we had today with the university presidents has to do with how we need to view higher education today, not as an industry but as a central axis in the development of this country, and not only in terms of intellectual production but also in terms of values, that is, what kind of people we are training to serve this country,” he explained.