Una Universidad para Venezuela más allá del Estado

Abstract

Starting from the premise that, along with health and food, there is no penny better invested than in education, the present essay assumes as a fait accompli the end of the university education model built during the Venezuelan democratic period (1958-1998), financed fundamentally by oil income and, to a lesser extent, by tax collection. Given the current lack of financial resources of any kind, the configuration of a new University for Venezuela is proposed, which requires profound changes not only in the political and economic model, but in deeper cultural aspects that lead to treasuring education and the need to invest in it. The dismantling and bankruptcy of the Venezuelan State by 21st century socialism, through an exacerbation of state paternalism accompanied by rampant corruption, put an end to public financing of Venezuelan universities, suppressing their autonomy. At the same time, an erroneous interpretation of the principle of free university studies, established with constitutional rank, has sparked over the years a fallacious narrative according to which in the national collective imagination education could only be free, becoming taboo private financing and social towards public universities.