According to the National Council on Higher Education (CONES), only 1.6% of the D.R.’s population has access to tertiary studies, despite the presence of 27 universities and seven institutes of higher education. According to official statistics, 159 out of every 10,000 citizens are currently enrolled at universities. There are approximately 140,000 university students, 62,000 of which attend the state-funded Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), by far the nation’s largest educational institution.
In 1960, UASD was the only university in the nation. Since then, 26 have been founded, 14 of which were established in the 1980’s. Since 1989, only four new universities have been accredited by CONES, with eight other applications for the creation of institutes of higher education being rejected. The president of CONES, Hector Rodriguez Cruz, has recommended that the extensions of the major universities in the interior of the country be replaced by independent regional institutions that can better serve the needs of those who live in the provinces. Mr. Rodriguez Cruz argues that the extensions do not have the facilities (libraries, laboratories) nor the teachers to educate effectively. His model would include four independent universities assigned to the South, North and Eastern regions, as well as in the National District.
22-28 March 1996