Anuies will submit a proposal to Sheinbaum to cover the total demand for higher education

Victor Ballinas

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, August 18, 2024, p. 9

The National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (Anuies), which brings together the country’s public and some private higher education institutions, prepared a proposal for public higher education that will be delivered next October to the now president Claudia Sheinbaum, in which they propose distance education, open education and creating universities in the states, in order to cover the total demand at this level by 2030.

The executive secretary of this association, Luis Armando González Plascencia, highlighted that the document contains 11 objectives, including that from 2024 to 2030, 100 percent coverage of educational demand at the university level is achieved.

Currently 47 percent are rejected

Leonardo Lomelí, rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), admitted last week, while giving a keynote speech at the inauguration of courses at the University of the Valley of Mexico, that 57 percent of applicants for a bachelor’s degree in the country are rejected, that is, only 43 percent of the demand at this educational level in the country is met, and he stressed that no university alone can meet the demand for admission at the university level, Neither UNAM nor IPN nor the technological ones.

In an interview, González Plascencia stressed that The document we have prepared is called Common Commitment for the Future of Mexican Higher Education: Charting a Route to 2030and stressed that it will first be delivered to the Secretary of Public Education appointed by the now president-elect, Mario Delgado.

After this event, an appointment will be made with President Sheinbaum in order to present her with the proposal. “We hope that the now president – ​​who has her origins at UNAM, who participated in student movements for free education and the defense of autonomy – understands the proposal. She is a scientist, she comes from the highest house of studies and she knows the problems of universities and their needs.”

The executive secretary of Anuies stressed: We want to guarantee the universal and free nature of higher education in 2030, as a human right, in the terms and conditions enshrined in the Constitution and in the laws..

Another proposal is to significantly expand the coverage of higher education with full compliance with the criteria of excellence, relevance, equity, inclusion and reduction of intercultural gaps in a balanced manner across all regions.

Another objective is to strengthen scientific and humanistic research, technological innovation, as well as the extension of educational services generated in higher education institutions, with an eye toward addressing the country’s problems.

Among the objectives for 2030, the need to strengthen the link between the national higher education system and the productive, public and social sectors is highlighted, in which, from the great diversity of vocations and profiles of higher education institutions and subsystems, programs and projects are developed jointly that address national and regional problems with a social and sustainable approach.

The universities that make up this association pointed out that among the 11 points that they will present to the president, the promotion and positioning of the country as a relevant player on the world academic stage due to its educational and scientific capabilities stands out.