Q24N (EFE) The Government of Nicaragua, through the Ministry of the Interior, canceled two other private universities on Friday, July 28, and ordered the confiscation of their movable and immovable property, bringing the total to 26 outlawed since December 2021, including 7 of foreign origin.
The new study centers affected are the Martín Luther King Jr. Nicaraguan Evangelical University Association (UENIC) and the Universidad de Occidente Association (UDO), as established in an agreement of the Ministry of the Interior, published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
The Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of the control and registration of NGOs, explained that they dissolved these universities at the request of the National Council of Universities (CNU) and the National Council for Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA).
THE BREACHES
According to said resolution, in the case of the UENIC, which had been operating since 1998, it issued institutional documents with logos belonging to the CNU and CNEA, without authorization.
It also points out that its headquarters and branches, as well as some of its academic offers, were not authorized by the CNU and the CNEA.
In addition, it highlights that the UENIC does not have the basic structure to function as a university authorized by the CNU nor does it control the teaching staff, does not keep an academic record of its students or a record of its teachers, while payments for degrees “have prices exuberant”, which are not specified in the document.
In the case of the UDO, which has also been operating since 1998, it is explained that it teaches courses not authorized by the CNU in its three locations: León, Managua and Estelí, and that it does not have the minimum quality before the CNEA, also presenting deficiencies. academic in their subjects, number of teachers and operating structure.
They also offered a master’s degree in Higher Education to students of another nationality without being authorized by the CNU, as well as career titles not authorized by the CNU and the CNEA.
To this is added, according to the resolution, that they have a headquarters in the municipality of Nueva Guinea (Southern Caribbean), which was not reported to the CNU and CNEA, and also created Centers for Higher Studies without being authorized by the CNU.
ORDER EXPEDITED AND ORDERLY DELIVERY
The Ministry of the Interior ordered the authorities of the two canceled universities to deliver in an expeditious and orderly manner to the National Council of Universities the information on students, teachers, careers, study plans, enrollment databases and grades or academic record.
Likewise, he informed that the CNU will proceed to relocate the students currently enrolled in Nicaraguan territory in universities that are accredited in the country.
Regarding the destination of the movable and immovable property of the study centers, it ordered the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic to transfer them to the name of the State of Nicaragua.
The National Assembly (Parliament), with a Sandinista majority, has outlawed 14 higher education centers at the request of the Executive since December 2021.
The other 12 study centers have been dissolved by the Ministry of the Interior.
In February of last year, Parliament created three new higher education centers with the documents and infrastructure seized from six illegalized private universities, including the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), which was a stronghold of anti-government protests between April and June. of 2018.
