For AUR, changes introduced to Decree No. 40, of June 10, 2015, would strengthen criteria that favor larger metropolitan higher education institutions, to the detriment of those located in regions with a lower level of development, less population and located in extreme areas.

Through a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, the Group of Regional Universities (AUR) expressed its concern about the modification to Decree No. 40, of June 10, 2015, of the MINEDUC, which establishes the form and conditions of assignment of the Basal resources for Performance that apply to the regional universities included in Art. 1 of the DFL (ED.) No. 4, of 1981, published in the Official Gazette on June 19, 2019.

The letter points out to the Minister of the Education portfolio that in article 2 the phrase “and at least 75% of them (the resources of the fund) will be assigned to institutions whose headquarters are located outside of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago.” According to AUR, the text that is being deleted is part of an effort that, with transversal support, the country has imposed to reverse the high degree of territorial concentration of resources.

For this reason, the rectors point out that the change introduced strengthens criteria that favor metropolitan and larger institutions to the obvious detriment of those from regions with a lower level of development, less population and/or located in extreme areas.

Finally, they indicate that this change contradicts the Government Program of President Sebastián Piñera, which proposes a strengthening of regional universities, as they are "campuses that require action plans in accordance with their particularities." It is also contradictory to the same program that states, “decentralization is one of the most felt demands of the regions and a necessity to promote harmonious development, which takes advantage of the full potential of our country and grants equal opportunities to all.”

Based on this background, the rectors of the regional campuses of the Council of Rectors ask the education authorities to correct this contradiction, based on the conviction that providing society and the country with stronger regional universities is a sign of territorial equity. , a sine qua non condition to move towards a more harmonious, balanced and developed country.

By AUR Communications