via Google Reader:
"Year of higher education?
More than twelve months of the current government, there is still a map for this area. It progresses to the compass of inertia.
José Joaquín Brunner
time ago, the President and his Minister of Education named the 2011 as the year of higher education. Impressive, no doubt. Surprising, too, if you think that more than twelve months of the current government, there is still no map for this area. It progresses to the compass of inertia. It is not difficult, however, to establish what problems they face and which direction is forward.
First of all, it requires a new institutional organization command of the sector. I proposed three years ago within the National Innovation Council, in a dissent signed jointly with Bernardita Méndez and Bruno Philippi, which "should be preferred formation of a Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, serving as head of the state public in this area "(National Innovation Strategy - Volume II, 2008, p. 175).
Now this suggestion is beginning to be appreciated, as shown by the positive expressions of two prominent university authorities, the rectors of the Usach and the PUC.
But this alone is not sufficient organizational and administrative reform. It is also essential to modify the basic legal framework for higher education, which remains the LOCE of 1989, now incorporated in the General Law of Education. The bottom line here is to give all-state universities, private and state-financed by the private non-direct fiscal support an institutional status clear, well defined and smooth. This will ensure academic autonomy, governance and management of the universities the freedom to teach, learn and ask what institutions need, and call them all about their duties of accreditation, accountability and public information.
State universities and private non-profit would the opportunity to establish itself as public corporations under the conditions prescribed by law. Those should be for-profit incorporation and abide by the rules available to the legislature. These stocks should report through a type of Uniform Codified Statistical Form (FECU) on its financial statements to the newly created Superintendency of Education.
institutions constituted as public corporations and compete on a more level ground, without being subject to discriminatory controls or asymmetric barriers. For its part, the institutions that now pretend not for profit would be entitled to distribute surplus among their owners, must do so with transparency and without receiving any special treatment from the State.
Then, you have to redesign the public financing of higher education. If the government hopes this is the year of the sector, should be based around: a commitment to double public spending relative to GDP, is now a fraction of the lowest in the world. In turn, these additional resources should be allocated to two main objectives: firstly, to scholarships and student loans, for which it should merge the two existing credit schemes in order to achieve a more equitable and sustainable, on the other to strengthen strategic areas of the accredited universities that have chosen to become public corporations, making use of performance agreements that align the goals of the institutions for social welfare and national development, regional or local.
In parallel, the Government must meet its commitment to increase spending on science and technology, thereby encouraging legitimate to major research universities in the country, led by the UCH and the PUC. And, secondly, those institutions whose projects were selected by two new funds: one for a regional applied research and development fund research capacity in priority areas or lines that would compete with the institutions in the process of building these capabilities.
Finally, if the Government is serious about devoting 2011 to reform and modernize higher education, should begin to receive proposals and submit them for discussion. To this end submit motions for discussion outlined here.
Things you can do from here:
- Jose Joaquin Brunner subscribe to with Google Reader
- Start using Google Reader to easily keep up all your favorite sites
0 comments:
Post a Comment