Barely three out of ten young people who finish school manage to access university education, according to the Ministry of Education (Minedu). Under this premise, the congresswoman Silvia Maria Monteza Fachoof Popular Action, presented a bill that seeks the creation of the first national virtual university in the country. However, the document does not explain how educational quality would be monitored in the possible new institution.
He bill 4976/2022-CR seeks the approval of the Law that creates the first virtual national university of Peru “Fernando Sergio Marcelo Marcos Belaúnde Terry”, who was former president of Peru and professor in different houses of study.
The second vice president of the Congress of the republic noted in the bill proposal that this university would have 10 careers distributed in three faculties. These are the professional schools of Architecture, Systems Engineering, Law, Political Sciences, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Administration, Accounting Sciences, Economics and Education. In addition, it requests that its implementation be declared of national interest.
This university would have an administrative headquarters in Limebut the academic cycles would be dictated by Internet and would focus on the technological development of its students, according to the proposal.
The parliamentarian cites that in the countries of Mexico and Spain the offer of virtual universities was successful, so it considers that this measure will also be viable in the Peru. Thus, it highlights the experiences of the BIND-Universidad de La Rioja, a house of studies with offices in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and other countries of the world, as well as the Distance University of Madrid (UDIMA) and the Online Technological University (UTEL) with Mexican headquarters.
“There are countries with realities similar to those of Peru that have National Distance or Virtual Education Universities, with decades of experience in their innovative development of their educational models and with scientifically proven results of social impact. Technical cooperation with these universities is feasible to ensure the quality of the implementation and development of the Virtual University of Peru”, it is indicated in the text of the bill.
It also refers to the difficulty of young Peruvians in accessing higher education after completing high school. However, despite possible good intentions, does not refer to how the quality of academic training will be monitored that is taught in this public and online institution, especially in a context in which the National Superintendency of Higher University Education (Sunedu) has been weakened in its oversight functions.
This after the Parliament “restore” autonomy to the universities, succeeding in disrupting the education reform started since 2015. Currently, even a couple of universities that did not show minimum quality conditions will continue to function thanks to the flexibility of the new Sunedu.
Although it is a declaratory proposal, it is argued that this measure could respond to the demand of youths of all country. It also refers to the fact that in the context of pandemic students of all educational levels adapted to virtual classes and presents it as an indicator. It is recognized that they had difficulties, although it is mentioned that only “at the beginning” when the truth is that schoolchildren, university students and students from institutes in marginal areas faced serious problems during the years of health emergency and many ended up dropping out of classes.
Thus, it should be noted that as it is a bill, that is, a proposed norm, it must still be analyzed in a committee of the Congress of the republic so that it can eventually be discussed in plenary.
