The Ministry of the Interior (Migob) made official this Tuesday the cancellation of the legal status of the Pan American University Association of Nicaragua (UPAN) and the University of the Pacific Association (UNIP), institutions that, among other things, it accuses of not complying with the ” minimum elements” in its academic offer and that several of its master’s programs were not authorized by the National Council of Universities (CNU).
With the cancellation and confiscation of the UPAN, registered as a Non-Profit Organization (OSFL) on June 8, 2015, and the UPIN, which was registered on May 12, 2020, the list of organizations canceled by Migob amounts to 3286 since 2018, according to a database built by CONFIDENCIAL.
In the case of UPAN, Migob indicates in Ministerial Agreement No. 32-2023 that, after an evaluation carried out by the CNU and the National Council for Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA) on March 2, they concluded that said university “It does not have a consistent academic offer in terms of its minimum elements that the study plans must have.”
They indicate that UPAN does not have authorization from the CNU and CNEA to offer degrees abroad, because they assess that this house of studies has “falsified information on the offer of postgraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees.” In addition, they emphasize that “the CNU has not authorized the execution of 9 master’s degrees and 2 doctorates that were not reported.”
In addition, they accuse the UPAN of having “outdated” curricular designs for master’s degrees, that the academic offer “does not have authorization from the CNU”, of “not having an adequate infrastructure”, of not providing the authorities with information on enrollment and of having issued titles of races not authorized by the CNU.
Along the same lines, Migob Ministerial Agreement No. 33-2022 states that, in an evaluation carried out on March 2 at UNIP by members of the CNEA and the CNU, they concluded that this university “failed to comply with the minimum elements in its academic offer”, nor does it comply with “the minimums” related to scientific research, full-time contracted teachers and institutional structure.
“UNIP does not have authorization from the CNU and CNEA to offer careers abroad, likewise it does not have technological support to offer virtual distance education services,” reads the Migob agreement.
They add that the UNIP “has ignored information related to the performance of academic activities and qualifications abroad”, a situation that, they assess, “attempts against the sense of integrity and academic rigor” that higher education institutions must have.
Students will be “relocated”
In both decrees, Migob ensures that these universities “did not report their financial statements” for the 2022 fiscal period with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, “did not promote transparency policies” in the administration of university funds.
This situation allegedly “obstructed the control and surveillance” of Migob’s General Directorate for Registration and Control of Non-Profit Organizations (OSFL).
They add that the directors of the UPAN and UNIP must deliver “in an expeditious and orderly manner” to the CNU Compliance Directorate, the information on students, teachers, careers, study plans, enrollment databases and qualifications, so that the students are relocated to CNU universities.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) will carry out “the transfer” of movable and immovable property of these universities “in the name of the State of Nicaragua”.
Other universities canceled and confiscated
The cancellation and confiscation of UPAN and UNIP occurs a week after Migob did the same with the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN) and John Paul II University. Both universities, supposedly, were not accredited in the quality indicators and did not report “their financial statements, clarifications about their assets, execution of funds, increases and decreases in accounts without warning.”
The rector of UCAN, Jeannette Bonilla, refused to deliver the academic records of the students and requested more time to challenge the Migob resolution, through which they canceled the legal status of the university. But the CNU threatened to denounce her “before the corresponding national authorities” if she does not hand over the university.
“Given the opposition to deliver the academic information of the extinct UCAN, we closed the minutes and withdrew from the campus, in order to file a complaint with the corresponding national authorities for non-compliance with what was ordered in the ministerial agreement,” the CNU indicated in a release.
The Migob has canceled the legal status from at least 19 private universities, including 13 national and six foreign. Among these, the Hispano-American University (Uhispam), the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), the Paulo Freire University, and the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics (Ucatse) stand out. After the closure of these, the regime created three new state universities that in practice operate as private ones.
The University for the Integration of Latin America (Unival), which lost its legal status on December 14, 2022 by order of the CNU, was the only one that filed a challenge before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) against Migob , the CNU and the National Council for Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA). However, this was declared inadmissible for “lack of procedural standing.”
