While the UTM received in this 2021 about 44 million dollars, the Uleam receives state allocations for about 60 million dollars.
Portoviejo
The Technical Universities of Manabí (UTM) and Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí (Uleam) each grant an education to 30,000 students, but the difference in the budget they receive from the State is considerable.
While the UTM received in this 2021 about $ 44 million, the Uleam receives state allocations for about $ 60 million.
For Vicente Véliz, rector of the UTM, it is a dramatic situation what they have to do with that budget, which he believes is a kind of punishment received by this center of higher studies in Buenos Aires. This, despite the fact that he considers that it grants more space, careers and maintains a staff with a better academic profile than other Manabi entities.
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“We have 30,000 students, 50 majors, 280 doctors and 14 magazines, and we received 44 million dollars,” complained Véliz.
The university authority, which culminates next year as administrator of the Buenos Aires alma mater, argued that there would be a bias that worries them, because it indicated that in another Manabi university the budget is higher, and with the resources that the UTM perceives they can hardly be achieved better levels of excellence.
“Three years ago (budget) it was $ 52 million, nobody can understand it, it’s like that overnight FIFA established that the one who scores the fewest goals per game wins the three points, nobody could understand it,” he questioned.
The Uleam grounds are located 40 kilometers away from the UTM campus. Its rector, Marcos Zambrano, said that this school year they have shown signs of improvements and savings, claiming that they have not increased their budget, since in 2020 this study center established in Manta had a budget cut by $ 5 million .
But that in 2021, assuming commitments such as locating a university headquarters in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas caused the State to return the $ 5 million that they reduced in 2020, about $ 2.9 million.
“We have about $ 60 million (budget), with debt and everything. The Government gives us about $ 54 million, $ 3.5 million that we made a loan to the State Bank and $ 1.5 million of self-management. I believe that in this moment of crisis we cannot be complaining about the resources but rather optimizing what we have ”, pointed out Zambrano.
When talking about optimization, he pointed out that before there were 24 addresses and they were reduced to 16, and from those 16 to 3 directors their salary was lowered, actions that added to others have also allowed them to have an economic solvency.
And Uleam’s growth projections range from extensions in the Pichincha canton and the headquarters in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. Create the City of the Sea, a university campus on an area of more than 10 hectares in the Jaramijó canton, where the careers of the Faculty of Marine Sciences and Engineering will be established, as well as technical careers with a campus in the Los Bajos commune of the Montecristi canton.
“This is due to the trust we have gained, that is why they are returning us $ 2.9 million,” said Zambrano.
The rector of the UTM, Vicente Véliz, mentioned that, for example, this university maintains on average the same budget of 2016, $ 46.3 million, with 14,088 students, and now the budget is almost similar with the 30,000 students it registers in 2021.
“In our case, we must be the public university that has grown the most in recent years. We from 12,000 to 13,000 students in 2012 to 29,000 students today. And we went from 32 to 47 majors, we are probably the public university in the country that has grown the most. Added to that, we have 1,500 graduate students, ”Véliz said.
While in Uleam the expansion of its academic offer will now reach the Pichincha canton, a town that is neighboring and connects to the towns of Guayas and Los Ríos.
This university received from the Municipality of Pichincha a land of 15 hectares as a loan, and another 3,000 square meters are also projected for what will be an ecological park in the area.
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“Manabí is 52% rural and Pichincha is within these statistics, we are going to take advantage of its potential in agriculture and its multiple sources of water to train and develop this area of Manabí through our academic offer,” said Marcos Zambrano, rector of the Uleam.
Domingo López, mayor of Pichincha, said that with an extension of Uleam in his canton, he will prevent students from migrating to other sectors in order to become professional.
The Municipality of Pichincha will also work on the movement of lands, the layout of roads and the provision of basic services for the campus, such as electricity, drinking water and sanitary sewerage. (I)
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