[:es]Echoes of University 2018: Cuba, Education as priority[:]

This was confirmed to Prensa Latina by the Higher Education Minister, José Ramón Saborido, during recent statements to journalists in the Havana Convention Center, prior to the closing of the XI International University Congress 2018.

The Caribbean island has become a benchmark for the world, said Saborido, who lamented that it does not happen the same in other places, where universities ‘lock themselves in and begin to defend the concept of autonomy, especially to confront and reject wrong policies of the State.’

The event, which has a biannual character, was attended by more than 2,000 delegates from about 60 countries representing institutions, organizations, regional groupings between February 12 and 16. They were ‘impressive figures,’ he said.

He said that the congress constituted a space for debate with a common objective of the search for improvement and discussion on how to make higher education more relevant.

In addition, they analyzed how to make this and education in general ‘a public good, as we have been defending it, and a truly human right with inclusion for all,’ the minister added.

He explained that at the global level there are diverse tendencies, even from the neoliberal point of view, and in many places the criterion of elite higher education prevails, of selection, with poor access for those most in need.

This type of event, which the Caribbean nation has strengthened in the last 20 years, will be repeated from February 10 to 14, 2020, when the XII International Congress of Higher Education must be held. (Prensa Latina)