CRUCH and CONFECH join forces in rejecting profit in Higher Education

University presidents and students agreed to develop a joint work agenda, which will include monthly meetings. The executive vice president of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), Juan Manuel Zolezzi, requested the immediate withdrawal of charges against those facing legal problems for protesting.

In their second meeting this year, the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH) and the Confederation of Chilean Students (CONFECH) made progress on a joint work agenda for 2012, which included the following main agreements: the categorical rejection of profit-making in education and the criminalization of the student movement, specifically regarding the cases of José Ancalao, leader of the Mapuche Student Federation, who has an arrest warrant issued against him, and Pedro Quezada, a student at the University of Playa Ancha, who is currently imprisoned.

Juan Manuel Zolezzi, executive vice president of CRUCH, requested—after the meeting concluded—that the accusations against those facing legal problems for protesting be withdrawn immediately. At the same point, Gabriel Boric, president of FECH and a member of the CONFECH executive board, echoed Zolezzi's statement and called for an end to this policy of threats and criminalization of the social movement. “The movement for education will not be deactivated with threats; they only give us more energy to continue,” the student leader declared.

Both organizations also agreed that on the issue of financing, progress should be made towards a system that subsidizes institutions through base contributions that strengthen public education, and not insisting on a demand-side subsidy mechanism, as proposed by the new financing system put forward by the government, a project that the rectors have been studying and about which they indicated they still have many questions.

“We have a lot of doubts, firstly because the proposal is based on a system that is completely unregulated, that doesn't eliminate profit-making, and that will transfer significant resources to higher education institutions that, while accredited, don't maintain the levels of quality we would expect. The CRUCH has been very clear that there needs to be more funding for higher education, but for institutions that are recognized, high-quality, and excellent,” explained the executive vice president of the CRUCH.

Regarding the regulation of profit in higher education, an issue that both CRUCH and CONFECH raised as essential during last year's protests, Rector Zolezzi said that by this time of year, the problem of who wasn't profiting would have been resolved. "The minister says that no higher education institution is for profit, especially universities, but the truth is that reality is quite different," the rector added.

Both entities agreed to continue developing a joint agenda and committed to monthly meetings in different regions to make progress on various topics of shared interest between CRUCH and CONFECH. These topics include democratization within universities, the need for a new accreditation system that ensures not only quality but also excellence, and admissions issues such as entrance exams for technical and vocational schools and integrating rankings into university selection processes. These shared interests are of paramount importance for advancing toward the common goal of strengthening public education.