Aldo Valle: "The reform entails qualitative and structural changes for the entire higher education system."«

28/08/2015
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  • Aldo Valle: "The reform entails qualitative and structural changes for the entire higher education system."«
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“For the Council of Rectors, it is essential to make a distinction between the Higher Education Reform that we seek to implement and its most immediate manifestation, which is free tuition,” Rector Valle emphasized.

The CRUCH is working on a document with observations on the proposal from the Ministry of Education.

In the context of the Council of Rectors' monthly meeting, its executive vice president, Rector Aldo Valle, accompanied by the alternate vice president, Rector Diego Durán, clarified that "for the Council of Rectors, it is very important to distinguish between the higher education reform that is being sought and its most immediate manifestation, which is free tuition for 2016." Addressing the urgency, the CRUCH vice president explained that there is no other legislative option than to proceed through a budget allocation to implement free tuition in 2016, but "this budget allocation should not be confused with the higher education reform itself, because if we were to reduce the reform solely to a matter of financing and free tuition, we would be on the wrong track, because we understand that the reform we want to implement entails qualitative and substantive structural changes for the entire higher education system," he stated.

Furthermore, Rector Valle expressed the Council of Rectors' appreciation for the ongoing reform, which is necessary for the country, not only for the CRUCH universities but for the entire higher education system. He also valued the substantive aspects of the reform and stated that "as the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, we are working on a document that outlines our points of agreement with the Ministry of Education's proposals, but also what we consider to be serious omissions that must be addressed in the draft legislation underpinning the higher education reform, which will ultimately be the instrument that will shape our education system for decades to come.".

In that document, he added, “we will reaffirm what we stated in the publication we delivered to the Minister of Education and to the public last month, where we argued that we must move forward with free tuition as an urgent public policy, particularly for students from the most vulnerable families. In this regard, we believe that the commitments already made by the government address this demand and the urgent need,” stated the Vice President of CRUCH.

At session No. 567 held in Santiago, the head of the Higher Education Division (DIVESUP), Francisco Martínez, also participated to clarify various aspects of the free higher education project within the framework of the joint work they are carrying out

Bills

Regarding the Ministry of Education's decision to postpone the presentation of the bill to Congress until December, Rector Valle expressed his support for the measure, "because it allows us to extend the process and have greater public deliberation so that the reform has a pre-legislative debate, which, in our opinion, is indispensable.".

He also agreed that the reform should be contained in different bills and suggested that this facilitates progress in different areas, such as "a bill on the Superintendence of Higher Education, a bill on the regulatory framework that includes matters relating to the quality assurance system, a bill relating to the admission system where there will be common rules for admission to higher education, among others.".

New Advisory Council

Regarding the Advisory Council for Higher Education Reform, announced by the Ministry of Education on Thursday, September 27, Rector Valle stated that “we should always consider it positive that the government seeks diverse and pluralistic opinions on bills that require the most thorough consideration. The executive branch is within its rights to form working committees because we understand that these bodies do not replace the stakeholders who must necessarily be included and considered in a pre-legislative debate such as this.”.

However, Valle pointed out that this body should have included academics from regions and not just from the Metropolitan Region.

In response to questions regarding the role of the newly formed Advisory Council, Valle emphasized that it does not replace the role of the Council of Rectors and clarified that "the Ministry of Education has listened to the CRUCH constantly and, although we have not agreed on everything, we have had the opportunity to discuss the major issues of the reform.".

In this regard, the Council of Rectors will continue to contribute to the deliberative process, “since it is made up of institutions that are in turn made up of university communities; that is, we do not represent ourselves and we do not only have a technical opinion on the matter but also an opinion that expresses and represents the university communities of our institutions,” he concluded.