Executive Vice President of the Council of Rectors: “It is a very encouraging sign for our universities that the 2021 budget for Higher Education was voted against.»

The Fourth Mixed Subcommittee on Budgets rejected the proposal presented by the Undersecretariat of Higher Education corresponding to expenses not established in permanent laws for Higher Education for the year 2021.

The executive vice president of CRUCH, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, and the rectors Ennio Vivaldi, president of the Consortium of Universities of the State of Chile, Diego Durán, president of the Network of Non-State Public Universities G9, and Patricio Sanhueza, president of the Association of Universities Regionals agreed to point out that during the pandemic, CRUCH universities have contributed to the country to face the pandemic and have complied with their students, despite the financial impact and lack of support from MINEDUC.

"It is a very encouraging sign for our universities that they have voted against the 2021 budget for Higher Education, as it reveals that parliamentarians have understood the seriousness of the proposal presented by the Ministry of Education," said the executive vice president of CRUCH and rector of the University of Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, when referring to the vote of the Fourth Mixed Subcommittee on Budgets that rejected -by three votes against and one in favor-, the proposal presented by the Subsecretariat of Higher Education corresponding to the expenses not established in permanent laws for Higher Education for the year 2021.

In the opinion of Rector Zolezzi, the proposal “did not take into account the significant contribution of the universities of the Council of Rectors to face the health crisis that the country has experienced, nor the difficult financial situation in which the universities find themselves as a consequence of the same pandemic ”.

At the session of the Fourth Joint Budget Subcommittee, convened for Monday, October 25, with the purpose of reviewing item 09 corresponding to the Ministry of Education, in addition to Rector Zolezzi, the following rectors were present: Ennio Vivaldi, president of the Consortium of State Universities of Chile; Diego Durán, president of the G9 Network of Non-State Public Universities; and Patricio Sanhueza, president of the Association of Regional Universities; and on behalf of the Ministry of Education, the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Juan Eduardo Vargas, participated.

In this context, the Undersecretary of Higher Education requested a “dose of realism,” to which the university presidents responded by stating that during the pandemic, the CRUCH universities have fulfilled their commitment to the country and their students, and that despite the financial impact and the lack of support from the Ministry of Education, university functions have continued uninterrupted. They also emphasized that the 30 CRUCH universities have been key players in the healthcare system and the economy of all regions, and have had—and continue to have—effects on thousands of suppliers, SMEs, and workers.

For the rector Ennio Vivaldi, “in times of crisis and in the search for economic recovery, increasing resources to the public university system is to finance the development of the country as a whole. Not to do so is to condemn ourselves to the inability to adequately face situations as tragic as those we have experienced during the last year ”.

Budget Problems 2021

In the session of the Fourth Mixed Subcommittee on Budgets, the rectors stated that the proposal presented by MINEDUC not only ignores the contribution of public universities, but also substantially reduces the items of expenses not established in permanent laws, such as the Fiscal Contribution Direct, AFD (5%); the Institutional Contribution of State Universities, AIEU (5%); the Basal Performance Fund (15%); contribution to Regional Higher Education (15%); contribution to the University of Chile (20%); Access to Higher Education Program, PACE (15%).

In the proposal, this decrease is justified by the increase of 6.8% in the resources allocated to Gratuity. However, this increase is due to the incorporation of new higher education institutions to this policy.

In this regard, the executive vice president of CRUCH was critical and said that "this increase cannot be at the expense of reducing and eliminating other items from the higher education budget." For his part, Rector Vivaldi asserted that “this contradicts the principle contemplated in Law 21,091, which establishes an objective mechanism to expand Gratuity, based on the macroeconomic conditions of the country. Thus, it was assumed that all progress in Gratuity would be made with new resources and not with budgetary redistributions ”.

During the discussion, Senator Yasna Provoste pointed out that "the 2021 budget harms the public university system," and added that the proposal "reduces institutional contributions; equates the treatment of public institutions with the private system; does not address the effects of the pandemic and relies on free tuition without correcting any of the operational problems that have been identified.".

Finally, the university rectors, aware of the country's situation, proposed several measures, such as: restoring institutional funds—basic funds, agreements, and funds of national interest—according to the values assigned in 2020, which in practice amounts to a real decrease of 2.61%; allowing the use of the total accumulated funds of the University Credit Solidarity Fund, which does not imply new expenses; suspending the application of tuition fee regulations; enabling a special support fund for CRUCH universities or low-cost loans with a state guarantee; and not considering the year 2020 for the calculation of tuition-free education.