\n<\/p>\n
Venezuelan academics are pessimistic that a change in leadership will improve the fortunes of the country\u2019s downtrodden universities, even after the shock ousting of leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has been sworn in as the country\u2019s interim president following the dramatic seizure of Maduro by U.S. forces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s past as a professor at the\u00a0Central University of Venezuela, academics are doubtful that\u00a0her ascension will be beneficial to the country\u2019s higher education system and have warned that \u201cprofound\u201d political change is needed if universities are to recover from years of attacks.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan universities suffered under Maduro\u2019s reign, with economic decline leading to severe budget cuts. Hyperinflation means salaries have\u00a0dipped to meager amounts, with reports suggesting that pay for professors averaged $15 per month in 2020, while student numbers\u00a0have fallen dramatically.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the deposed leader\u2019s administration was known for jailing scholars it saw as critical of the government and has been accused of installing those with pro-Maduro views in leadership positions at universities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These attacks, combined with the economic crisis,\u00a0have driven many scientists and academics out of the country. A 2020 study found that Venezuela has\u00a0lost 16\u00a0percent\u00a0of its scientific research workforce as a result of emigration.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Scharifker, emeritus professor at\u00a0Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar University\u00a0in the capital, Caracas, said the country\u2019s university system and scientific institutions \u201cabsolutely collapsed\u201d under Maduro, with attacks on universities seen as a way to maintain power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you collapse the universities, then you also collapse the possibility of students going to the street and protesting against the government,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While they might not be grieving Maduro\u2019s departure, academics said Rodr\u00edguez, who has been vice president since 2018, was not seen as any better. \u201cWe are only changing a face,\u201d said Scharifker, with many of those who ruled under Maduro remaining in power despite his departure.<\/p>\n
For example, Jorge\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez, the interim leader\u2019s brother, was\u00a0reappointed president of Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly days after the U.S. attack. He previously held academic posts at universities in the country and was a prominent student leader.<\/p>\n
But, despite their links with the higher education sector, the\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez\u00a0family is not thought to be interested in helping universities recover from years of damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that somebody that in 25 years has done [nothing] for the university will start doing it now,\u201d said Jaime Requena, a member of the Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of Venezuela and a researcher on brain drain. \u201cI would be extremely surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a tremendous task to rebuild,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Although the U.S. might influence the country\u2019s future policy direction, academics were doubtful that President Donald Trump would be interested in prioritizing the university sector. In the U.S., Trump\u2019s second presidency has been characterized by a crackdown on higher education,\u00a0including funding cuts.<\/p>\n
And while new ties with the U.S. could make travel into and out of the country easier after a period of international isolation, many academics are unlikely to return without economic and political reform, Requena said. \u201cYou cannot have a research system working in a place where there is no freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that international cooperation and partnerships, including loans, will be crucial to the future recovery of the sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have political freedoms, then you cannot really be a university professor,\u201d Scharifker agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we really want science to recover to\u00a0\u2026 the level that we once had many years back, we need a profound political change in Venezuela\u2014not only the change of who is sitting in the presidential palace, but really what are the policies, and I think that is not going on in Venezuela at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venezuelan academics are pessimistic that a change in leadership will improve the fortunes of the country\u2019s downtrodden universities, even after the shock ousting of leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has been sworn in as the country\u2019s interim president following the dramatic seizure of Maduro by U.S. forces.\u00a0\u00a0 Despite\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s past as a professor at the\u00a0Central University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[270,495,3355,1913,20912,3356,5483],"class_list":{"0":"post-40881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-change","9":"tag-higher","10":"tag-needed","11":"tag-political","12":"tag-profound","13":"tag-revive","14":"tag-venezuelan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}