“We are meeting our goal of decentralizing education and promoting much more harmonious cultural, scientific, and economic development in each region of the country,” she stated.
President Michelle Bachelet, accompanied by Education Minister Adriana Delpiano, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdés, and Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency Nicolás Eyzaguirre, has signed the enactment of the law to set up two new public universities in the Aysén and O’Higgins regions.
“By creating these universities, we are meeting this goal and making good on our promise to decentralize education and promote much more harmonious cultural, scientific, and economic development in each region of the country and to strengthen the regional and local public institutional structure,” the President remarked.
This law forms part of the Education Reform and efforts to strengthen public education, decentralization, and equity in higher education.
This is the third time in Chile’s history that a public university that is not derived from an existing one has been created. The last time this happened was in 1947 when the Universidad Técnica del Estado (State Technical University) was founded.
“The goal is to make the system more comprehensive, inclusive, and pluralist, for it to allow for the transmission and generation of knowledge and promote critical thinking and creativity as well as collaboration, and for it to contribute to economic and human development at the local, regional, and national levels,” she added.
Once the law is published, the President will assign another public university to mentor each new institution during its design, installation, and implementation process.
President Bachelet will also appoint the new rectors, who will be responsible for drafting the first Organic Statutes and strategic development plan of each institution, along with an educational model and the installation of the Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education Program (PACE) for 2015-2016.
“We believe that the government should play a central role in the development of the nation and in creating the conditions necessary to allow all of our citizens to deploy their talents, realize their potential and make their dreams come true,” President Bachelet stated.
She added, “We want these new public universities and the education system as a whole to contribute to these goals. We have made significant efforts to make education more inclusive, equitable, and higher quality, and we want to continue to do so.”