NewsWhore
08-09-2010, 02:30 PM
The Fernandez administration has invested millions in infrastructure and staff at the state university, UASD. Listin Diario reports, however, that the university's modernization lags behind when it comes to maintenance, availability of desks, lab equipment, research and functioning bathrooms.
"The budget is barely enough to pay the growing number of employees, and has not enabled the authorities to maintain the facilities or repair the classrooms and labs that are deteriorating by the day," reports the newspaper. A law establishes that the UASD should receive a generous 5% of the National Budget, but this has never happened.
The university has an estimated 200,000 graduates attracted primarily by the free or low-cost tuition. The UASD is the third largest university in the Americas, with 172,000 students, around 2,500 professors and more than 3,000 employees. The university offers degree courses in Science, Health Sciences, Economic and Social Sciences, Judicial and Political Sciences, Agriculture and Veterinarian Sciences, Humanities, Engineering and Architecture, Arts and Education. Some 115 degrees are on offer, and the UASD graduates around 7,000 students a year.
The central and regional campuses built by the Presidency's Public Works Supervisory Office (OISOE) in Santiago, Puerto Plata, Bonao, Higuey, San Juan de la Maguana have a total of 600 classrooms. Others are scheduled to open this year in Barahona and Mao.
Works to expand the Santo Domingo campus started in 2005 with a budget of RD$2.5 billion, but many remain unfinished. The works, which were entrusted to the Presidency's Office of Supervisory Public Works Engineering, include a nine-floor administrative building, a parking building, the Dr Pieter Cancer Center, a building for Sciences, Technology and Innovation and a university cafeteria.
Listin Diario reporters said their attempts to consult Felix Bautista, head of the OISOE office in charge of the expansion, led nowhere. The report highlights that many of the works in Santo Domingo would have been financed with a US$130 million loan the government took with the Sun Land Corporation.
The newspaper says that the Supervisory Office has built regional campuses.
Higher Education Minister Ligia Amada Melo recently criticized the construction of the UASD branches, claiming that they were not providing quality education, and that students were being cheated because employers would not value their degrees.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)
"The budget is barely enough to pay the growing number of employees, and has not enabled the authorities to maintain the facilities or repair the classrooms and labs that are deteriorating by the day," reports the newspaper. A law establishes that the UASD should receive a generous 5% of the National Budget, but this has never happened.
The university has an estimated 200,000 graduates attracted primarily by the free or low-cost tuition. The UASD is the third largest university in the Americas, with 172,000 students, around 2,500 professors and more than 3,000 employees. The university offers degree courses in Science, Health Sciences, Economic and Social Sciences, Judicial and Political Sciences, Agriculture and Veterinarian Sciences, Humanities, Engineering and Architecture, Arts and Education. Some 115 degrees are on offer, and the UASD graduates around 7,000 students a year.
The central and regional campuses built by the Presidency's Public Works Supervisory Office (OISOE) in Santiago, Puerto Plata, Bonao, Higuey, San Juan de la Maguana have a total of 600 classrooms. Others are scheduled to open this year in Barahona and Mao.
Works to expand the Santo Domingo campus started in 2005 with a budget of RD$2.5 billion, but many remain unfinished. The works, which were entrusted to the Presidency's Office of Supervisory Public Works Engineering, include a nine-floor administrative building, a parking building, the Dr Pieter Cancer Center, a building for Sciences, Technology and Innovation and a university cafeteria.
Listin Diario reporters said their attempts to consult Felix Bautista, head of the OISOE office in charge of the expansion, led nowhere. The report highlights that many of the works in Santo Domingo would have been financed with a US$130 million loan the government took with the Sun Land Corporation.
The newspaper says that the Supervisory Office has built regional campuses.
Higher Education Minister Ligia Amada Melo recently criticized the construction of the UASD branches, claiming that they were not providing quality education, and that students were being cheated because employers would not value their degrees.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)