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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 ”.
En la sesión de la Cuarta Subcomisión Mixta de Presupuestos, convocada para el lunes 25 de octubre con el propósito de revisar la partida 09 correspondiente al Ministerio de Educación, además del rector Zolezzi estuvieron los rectores Ennio Vivaldi, presidente del Consorcio de Universidades del Estado de Chile; Diego Durán, presidente de la Red de Universidades Públicas no Estatales G9; y Patricio Sanhueza, presidente de la Agrupación de Universidades Regionales; y por parte del Ministerio de Educación participó el subsecretario de Educación Superior, Juan Eduardo Vargas.
En este contexto, el subsecretario de Educación Superior solicitó tener una “dosis de realismo”, ante lo cual los rectores coincidieron en plantear que durante la pandemia las universidades del CRUCH han cumplido con el país y sus estudiantes y, a pesar del impacto financiero y la falta de apoyo del MINEDUC, se ha dado continuidad a las funciones universitarias. También, que las 30 universidades del CRUCH han sido agentes claves en la red de salud y en la economía de todas las regiones y han tenido –y tienen- efectos en miles de proveedores, pymes y trabajadores/as.
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 ”.
Durante la discusión, la senadora Yasna Provoste señaló que “el presupuesto del año 2021 perjudica al sistema público de universidades”, y agregó que la propuesta “disminuye los aportes institucionales; iguala el tratamiento de las instituciones públicas al sistema privado; no se hace cargo de los efectos de la pandemia y descansa sobre la gratuidad sin corregir ninguno de los problemas de funcionamiento que se han identificado”.
Finalmente, los rectores, conscientes de la situación del país, propusieron diversas medidas, tales como: restablecer los fondos institucionales -fondos basales, convenios y de interés nacional- según los valores asignados el año 2020, lo que en la práctica equivale a una disminución real del 2,6%; permitir el uso de los fondos totales acumulados del Fondo Solidario de Crédito Universitario, lo que no implica nuevos gastos; suspender la aplicación de la regulación de aranceles; habilitar un fondo especial de apoyo a las universidades del CRUCH o créditos de bajo costo y con garantía estatal; y no considerar el año 2020 para el cálculo de la Gratuidad.