The UCA is left without scholarships and launches an SOS to obtain funds for students
By DIVERGENTES
Sept 9, 2022
The house of studies communicated to subsidized students that it is making every possible effort to continue supporting them to be able to “finish their university career.” Two students of this alma mater talk about how difficult the path has been and how valuable the contribution of the university has been.
In 2019 María* achieved her dream of studying in the Central American University (UCA), one of the most prestigious houses of study in Nicaragua. Her mother and grandfather helped her pay the university expenses during that year, nevertheless, the salary of her mother was not enough, and she soon had to resort to requesting a scholarship. The reduction that the National University Council (CNU) did that year on that alma mater as a political reprisal meant that she did not obtain that benefit. The young woman had to “be creative” to wait and continue with her studies.
Two years later, in the second semester of 2021, the university student got a 70% scholarship which she has kept so far. Nevertheless, she confesses that she feels that she is “on thin ice” because of the current context that the UCA is going through: they revoked their access to the 6% contribution and it was excluded from the CNU. In other words, the house of studies was left without funds to ensure scholarships for its students.
“It was $500 dollars per semester (what she was paying) and the truth is that it was a lot of money; I felt bad because my Mom had to borrow money to be able to pay for my university studies, because she did not have a super salary. My grandfather also was helping me,” said the young woman about her beginnings, when she still had not been benefitted with a scholarship.
The student currently is in the fourth year of Social Communications major, and even though she is a step away from finishing her studies, she recognizes that she is afraid, because “one never knows whether the university is going to be able to continue covering the scholarship.”
Her fears are growing because this past April she received an email from the UCA that explained that her scholarship was only valid for the 2022 school year, and the UCA clarified that this benefit comes from a “special support fund.” In the letter they warn her that for the coming year this subsidy will be subject to renovation, “depending on the availability of funds for the university.”
This is due to the fact that the UCA no longer has the needed resources to continue paying for the scholarships of its students. In March 2022 the Ortega-Murillo regime drove in what would be the latest stake in the heart of this alma mater, by approving a reform to Law 89, the Autonomy Law for Higher Education Institutions, with which they removed the UCA from the CNU and the funds that it used to receive from the constitutional 6%.
The pressure against the UCA worsened beginning with the 2018 crisis, when the campus was the hotbed for the students who protested over the fires in the Indio Maíz Biosphere Reserve and later over the reform of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS).
Since then, the regime has been cutting the budget assignment to the UCA to choke it economically. In 2022 it only granted it a million córdobas (less than $30,000 dollars), when in 2018 the budget was more than 251 million córdobas.
Nevertheless, despite this situation, on September 2 of this year the university communicated to the student community on scholarships that “faithful to its Christian values and principals,”, it has made every effort “to continue supporting its scholarship students to finish their university careers.”
For that purpose, the house of studies pointed out that it will be providing access to a digital tool so that scholarship students might have the support of “altruistic people who would sponsor their tuition and help them achieve their goal.”
Scholarship was “a blessing.”
The importance of the university granting this benefit to its students is also reflected in examples like that of Juana*, another Social Communications student who is about to finish her studies. The young woman says that having received a scholarship in 2020 was a “blessing”, because she got it in the midst of cutbacks which the university was experiencing at that time.
The student says with pride that her grade average of 95 also helped her to get the authorities to grant her that benefit. “In that moment they were only giving full scholarships to those who had the best averages,” she said.
“I believe that despite the blows that the university has received, it is doing good work to keep the scholarships, because I remember that when the cutbacks began several students were left in the air, and now I see that they are looking for financing from other places,” the young woman stated.
In the case of María, the house of studies promised to maintain 70% of the scholarship during this year, as long as she met the conditions that the university established: passing all the classes she registered for in the academic year, maintaining her punctuality and attendance; complying with the rules of the academic regime and submitting all the paperwork properly and on time.
UCA reduced the percentage of scholarships
In March of this year the Jesuit University reduced by up to 20% the percentage of scholarships to students who already had one. In other words, in the case of a scholarship that was 100%, the university would only be responsible for covering 80%.
The university pointed out that the decision to reduce the percentage was due to the “budgetary limitations” that the university was facing.
Even though the youth consulted for this article pointed out that so far the academic authorities are maintaining their scholarship percentages, they are attentive to the decisions that the university might take in coming months.
“My [grade] average has not dropped, but I remember that before the beginning of this semester they called me from the scholarship office to ask me how many classes I still needed to graduate and when I would graduate, I suppose that is because they are doing the numbers to see how much money they have to continue financing scholarships,” said Juana.
*At the request of the sources consulted, their true names were changed in this article.