Despite the fact that more than 632 careers are listed in the Book of Opportunities for University Studies, the reality is that the academic authorities only take into account 145. In addition, the Ministry of University Education classified only 15 of them as priority, which greatly limits measure the higher education options of high school graduates.
A report published by the Human Development Laboratory (Ladeshu) warns that “applicants must take into account that for the government there are prioritized careers, which are related to its vision of what it defines as: productive economy and the needs of the nation.”
The organization warns that of the careers classified as priority, none is in the area of humanities.
They explain that in the case of Medicine, the Comprehensive Community Medicine degree, which is taught in the universities controlled by the government, is considered a priority. However, the list does not include undergraduate degrees from the health sciences schools of the universities autonomous.
Apart from the 15 careers that the government assumes as priorities, they establish another 21 as derived and 109 as complementary.
Autonomous universities considered segregationist
Ladeshu recalled that during the government of Hugo Chávez, the Academic Attitude Tests were considered exclusive, «and in the official narrative an opinion matrix was built according to which the autonomous universities and the experimental ones not controlled by the ruling party were segregationist because they denied the professionalization of poor students or those with insufficient basic knowledge”.
“It was not considered that most of the high school graduates who entered those universities condemned as discriminatory were from popular strata and that they became professionals following the criteria of academic quality that they and the country deserved,” the report indicates.
Following this concept, the government decided that the University Sector Planning Office (OPSU) would directly assign up to 30% of the available places for the first semester or year.
In 2015 it was indicated that to opt for a university quota, the academic index has a weight of 50%, the socioeconomic conditions of the high school graduates 30% and the place where they come from 15%. The remaining 5% corresponds to socio-community activities developed by the applicant.
«In this way, a student who, even with economic limitations, has a good performance in his grades but who lives in an area valued as privileged by the OPSU technicians, and another student who, without the same academic performance than before, live in areas considered to be underprivileged,” Ladeshu explained.
Along with these four criteria, the OPSU has since proceeded to allocate all available quotas in higher education, except quotas resulting from union agreements, artistic or sports skills of high school graduates and children of foreign diplomats.
Low student enrollment
The organization pointed out that in these circumstances “where those who benefit least continue to be the most vulnerable, the severe crisis that is suffocating the country is reflected in the low student enrollment in autonomous and Bolivarian universities.”
They warn that for high school graduates, opting for a place in higher education is no longer a priority, since they prefer to dedicate themselves to other jobs with which they obtain better remuneration.
«The priority of high school graduates is to earn a living in various trades, given the impossibility for most of them to work and study as in previous years. Seen over time, the government’s interventionist policies once morest the universities it does not control are resulting in their weakening,” the document highlights.
Ladeshu took as an example the case of the Medicine course at the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado. In previous years it was one of those with the highest demand, with a list of between 500 and 600 applicants who were not assigned by OPSU and who wanted to enter through an internal census. So far in 2022, only a little more than 60 high school graduates have been registered.