Since 2008 the National Government has applied budget cuts to universities. In 2024 These study houses received 2.60% of the national budget
The mobile ARI of The whistle, Runrun.es and SuchWhich He interviewed the rector of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), Victo Rago, to know what the changes and new approaches have been promoted in the higher educational institution number one in the country, according to the QS World University Rankings 2026.
Achieving greater economic independence in public universities is one of the greatest issues of discussion or debate within these educational entities. According to an article from The whistle and Connectas published in 2021, From 2008 to 2021 the National Government applied a reduction in the budget to public universities of 6,800 million dollars.
Given these cuts, the infrastructure of the universities, the salary of the professors, administrative and logistics staff and the student benefits such as the study scholarships and the dining room service have suffered a visible deterioration in the different autonomous higher institutions and specifically in the UCV.
UCV covered hallway collapsed in June 2020. Photo: Talcual
At the end of 2023 the then president of the Federation of University Centers, Jesús Mendoza Morales, made public that The National Budget of 2024 approved by the National Assembly did not include 5 % of the requested funds.
Likewise, recently, the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the UCV had an exhibition on the challenges and realities of the university budget 2025 and denounced that“The university is not being financed by the State, but it is the PRE and Postgraduate students themselves who, through their payments, support the institution.”
Economic autonomy as the center of debate
Víctor Rago said that given this complex situation in the university there must be “a critical debate about how to mobilize their own capabilities to find alternate financing.” He revealed that two of the alternatives considered contemplate opt for international financing of organizations such as the European Union and its affiliated countries, and that another direction “is that universities also develop institutional capacities and skills.”
Mobile ARI at the Central University of Venezuela. Photo: Adriana Materano
But before making these requests and changes, the rector explained that to achieve them it is important that the institution, the university community, the students and the sectors that have the management responsibility of the institution discuss and reflect on it. “All this implies a process of transformation of the institution itself. This is not done overnight.”
*Also read: Ari Mobile | Donation of organs of deceased people is eight years
The need to renew the curricula
The curriculum renewal of careers is another of the central themes of discussion in autonomous public universities. For Rago, races must be renowned beyond curricular offers. “Renewing the curricula does not simply mean updating them and taking out the books that are no longer in the line of the avant -garde of thought, but means rethinking careers.”
In the same line of the renewal of the careers, the rector of the UCV said that the role of the university must be active in its relationship with both the State and with the offers of new labor fields that drive development. “The university is not an institution that is to respond simply to the requests of the environment. It is to guide the appearance of these demands in the environment itself.”
“Nobody land” recreation space within the Central University of Venezuela. Photo: Adriana Materano
How to achieve these changes?: “Put the horses in front of the cart”
For Rago, through the debate and critical evaluation of the university on itself, it will be possible to establish “the formulation of institutional policies that guide” both on the issue of greater economic autonomy, and in the necessary curricular renovations.
Finally, Rago clarified to the Information Truck of the Rebel Alianza investigates that these formulations mentioned above are the basis that will give effect to the reforms of the regulations and insisted that in order for the latter to generate the necessary changes, the actions must initiate “by redefining objectives… so that begin by reforming the regulations and internal standards is like putting the cart in front of the horses”.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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