The Ministry of the Interior asked the National Assembly, controlled by the Sandinista Front, on Monday to cancel the legal status of the Nicaraguan Technological University Association (UTN) and the Santo Tomás de Oriente y Mediodía University Association (USTON).
The petition presented by the Sandinista deputy, Filiberto Rodríguez, at the request of the head of the Department of Registration and Control of Associations, Franya Urey Blandón, is due to “inconsistencies in the financial statements” of both universities, and because the UTN has not changed its board of directors.
“The associations have hindered the control and surveillance of the Department of Non-Profit Civil Associations, by not reporting their financial reports according to the fiscal periods, with detailed breakdowns, they have not promoted transparency policies in the administration of funds, ignoring the execution of them and whether or not they were in accordance with their aims and objectives”, they allege.
According to the explanatory document, both universities failed to comply with their obligations under the General Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities, and the Law against Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
They add more than 20 educational associations
With this request, there will already be 40 associations, foundations and NGOs that lost their legal status and registration in the first two months of 2022. Of these, 22 are educational, the rest are institutions that promote social development, human rights and there are some that had religious principles.
The private universities canceled so far are the Hispano-American University (Uhispam), the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics (Ucatse), the Nicaraguan University of Humanitarian Studies (UNEH), the Popular University of Nicaragua (Uponic ), Paulo Freire University (UPF) and these two are added.
Likewise, there are seven societies linked to foreign private universities: Thomas More University Association (UTM), Central American University Association of Business Sciences (UCEM), Florida International University, Michigan State University, Mobile University Corporation, Private University Foundation in Sciences del Mercado and Wake Forest University.
According to an estimate made by CONFIDENTIALmore than 18,000 students have been affected in various departments of the country by the closure of these universities, which after being canceled have passed into the hands of the National Council of Universities (CNU) that executes a plan for students to complete their careers.
University of Granada has history
Of the two canceled universities, the UTN is the one that has been operating in Nicaragua the longest. Its legal status was granted in 1998 and, according to its website, it has two offices, one in Managua and the other in León. This house of studies offers university and technical careers. It is located next to the National University of Engineering (UNI) and its rector is Antonia Nájera Aragón.
For its part, the USTON has been operating in the country since 2003, is directed by Roberto Ferrey and has “close cooperation and affiliation with the David University in the US and the Christian University of the South in Costa Rica,” they describe on their site. Web.
However, they clarify that this university had already operated in Nicaragua at the beginning of the last century, but it was closed in 1950 by the Somoza dictatorship. “At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the idea of a Higher Education Institution was promoted in Granada, thus materializing a private initiative with the name Universidad de Oriente y Mediodía, known as the University of Granada”, they describe.
