by centralizing power in his National Council of Universities
The Ortega regime has transformed the management of higher education, putting his hand-picked National Council of Universities in charge of all decision-making, and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in charge of administrating the budget assigned to the universities.
HAVANA TIMES – Nicaragua’s National Assembly, controlled by the Ortega-Murillo duo, has enacted an unchallenged reform to Laws 89 and 582 – respectively, the law of Autonomy for Institutions of Higher Education, and the General Education Law. The changes realized are so drastic that specialists in the field call it “a death certificate for the country’s university autonomy.”
The reform was approved on November 30, with all 91 deputies voting in favor. It completely transforms the administrative model for higher education in Nicaragua, handing over to the National Council of Universities the legal authority to manage the universities in accordance with the interests of the Executive branch.
The confiscated “Central American University (UCA),” now rebaptized “Casimiro Sotelo National University”, been added to the list of national universities under the CNU. Further, the law transfers management of the 6% of Nicaragua’s national budget earmarked for higher education to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, which will now be in charge of its distribution.
“The National Council of Universities as a state entity will be in charge of regulating the Higher Education Institutions, assuring the formation of professionals in accordance with the country’s policies of sustainable human development. This implies reorganizing the structure of this entity, fortifying its functions, and giving it the legal capacity to manage the model of higher education,” states the official explanation of the reform.
CNU will be under orders from the Executive
In the structural framework of the reform, the regime not only reorganized the CNU structure, but also practically “transformed it into a Ministry of Higher Education,” noted Nicaraguan academic Ernesto Medina.
“There will now be a directive board named by the president of Nicaragua, about whom absolutely nothing has been said in terms of the qualities the CNU president and vice president will have. It appears that the secretary, currently the technical directo
