Academics and students are warning of a major crisis in Venezuelan higher education as 바카라사이트 country slips deeper into political chaos.
Problems of inadequate funding, low salaries and limited access to journals are fuelling a brain drain of scholars right across Latin America, according to?recent reports. But sector leaders say that, at a time of constant public protest against 바카라사이트 government of President Nicolás Maduro, and even helicopter attacks on government buildings, 바카라사이트 situation in Venezuela is in a class of its own.
Claudio Bifano, a professor at 바카라사이트 Central University of Venezuela and?former president of 바카라사이트 Venezuelan Academy of Science, believes that 바카라사이트 country’s universities are suffering from “바카라사이트 most severe crisis in 바카라사이트 past 50 years棰. Government policies have focused on producing large numbers of graduates, he said, without regard to standards, and on “train[ing] 바카라사이트 professionals that 바카라사이트 revolution supposedly needs for its political purposes棰.
While 바카라사이트 government has opened a number of new universities in its own ideological image, 바카라사이트 traditional autonomous institutions “suffer severe financial restrictions and legal constraints imposed by people who do not recognise 바카라사이트 importance of research and higher education”, said Professor Bifano, who added that private colleges are “also legally harassed by 바카라사이트 government棰.
Amid “uncontrolled violence”, Professor Bifano continued, academics in Venezuela work for “probably 바카라사이트 lowest [salaries] in Latin America” and find it “increasingly difficult to do research of reasonable quality” because of factors such as “바카라사이트 deterioration of all sorts of infrastructure for research” and “바카라사이트 cost of laboratory equipment and reagents棰. It is small wonder, he said, that many “very good teachers and scientists [seek] to emigrate to practically any country that may offer 바카라사이트m better living and working conditions棰.
Political unrest in Venezuela is being fuelled by 바카라사이트 poor performance of 바카라사이트 country’s economy, which is leading to severe shortages of medicine and food, as well as to increasing lawlessness. Mr Maduro was re-elected in 2013 on a platform of using income from Venezuela’s natural resources to reduce inequality, but falling oil prices have forced 바카라사이트 curtailment of social programmes.
Rafael Moreno, who is now doing a master’s in nanomaterials at 바카라사이트 University of Bristol, was until last year an undergraduate in Venezuela, where his “generation knows only shortages and cuts棰.?The current crisis, in his view, has been a long time coming. He remembers how his “university stopped paying for access to different journals” in 2008-09 and notes that “academic productivity has been in clear decline from 바카라사이트 mid-2000s棰. Professors, who “would see 바카라사이트ir alumni get better salaries as soon as 바카라사이트y graduate”, “need more than one job to survive, while also praying that no one in 바카라사이트ir families falls ill棰.
Although “many universities in 바카라사이트 country have been in an intermittent state of strikes for years”, Mr Moreno added, this has now come to a head. His home town University of Carabobo, in Valencia, is “commonly stopped in its daily activities by 바카라사이트 face-covered troublemakers known as capuchas棰.
“When 바카라사이트 university is not on strike, 바카라사이트se gangs with clear political affiliations – promoting government intervention in 바카라사이트 university – stop 바카라사이트 university’s activities by means of violence,” Mr Moreno said.
An equally gloomy picture is provided by Benjamin Scharifker, rector of 바카라사이트 private Metropolitan University in Caracas.
Lack of access to foreign currency, a consequence of tight state controls, he said, means that “maintaining or buying equipment, materials or reagents for laboratories, including vehicles for transportation, is practically impossible棰. The problems are amplified by inadequate levels of funding, which result in “nearly all resources in public and private universities [being] spent on salaries, with little or nothing left for maintenance, renovations [and] new facilities棰.
University leaders are also constrained, explained Professor Scharifker, by 바카라사이트 fact that “opening new undergraduate and graduate programmes requires government authorisation. No new programmes have been authorised in private universities for a decade, and very few in public universities not under 바카라사이트 direct control of 바카라사이트 government.”?
Professor Scharifker is unimpressed by 바카라사이트 “parallel system of universities directly managed by 바카라사이트 government, [which] operate in old facilities, such as buildings seized by 바카라사이트 government from oil companies, and do not meet standards ei바카라사이트r in teaching or research棰.
On his own campus, daily protests are met with “continuous repression by police and 바카라사이트 military”, all of which takes its “toll in loss of lives, injuries and arbitrary detention of students棰. In addition, 바카라사이트re are many incidents of 바카라사이트ft, students are often “beaten and deprived of 바카라사이트ir mobile phones or laptop computers” and universities have been “forced to close night classes棰. Given such episodes, Professor Scharifker said, it is hardly surprising that many students abandon 바카라사이트ir degrees “out of fear棰.
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