Calls for increase in higher education budget
16 Dec 2010
The Mexican Association for Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES) and the sub-secretary for higher education call for an increase in the budget for higher education.
The executive secretary of ANUIES, Rafael López Castañales, pointed out that € 164 million more needs to be invested in higher education. The total investment should equal at least 1% of the GNP, but in Mexico this is only 0.66%.
The low budget makes it uncertain how Mexican higher education will develop in the future. Although the federal government has tried to improve higher education, the efforts have not been sufficient.
Availability of higher education
Rodolfo Tuirán Gutiérrez responsible for higher education at the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education, confirms the above. He mentions that countries with a comparable economic situation, such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, have places at higher education institutions for 50 to 70% of its population between 19 and 23 years old. Mexico only has coverage for 30%. The goal is to raise this coverage to 50% between 2020 and 2030.
Although the education budget for 2011 will grow with 4%, this is not sufficient to resolve the problems public universities face. Each year many students need to be turned down when trying to enter the national public university, UNAM, because of the limited capacity of the institution.
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