EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: Universities Join Hands in Cyberspace

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Andrés Cañizález

CARACAS, Nov 16 2001 (IPS) - The Venezuelan chapter of an Ibero- American portal of academic services and university exchanges, linking 36 of the country’s 41 universities, was presented in the Venezuelan capital Thursday.

The local section of the Universia portal, which can be accessed in Spanish at the www.universia.edu.ve website, forms part of an Ibero-American project sponsored by Spain’s Santander Central Hispano Bank (BSCH), which also links universities in Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico and Spain.

Andrés Pedreño, the head of the Universia project and a former dean of the University of Alicante in Spain, said the on-line connection between universities, financed by a private institution, was “a unique case on the Internet.”

Universia represents an effort to meet a major challenge facing higher learning institutions: “to remain competitive in today’s world,” he stated.

Thursday’s ceremony in Caracas was attended by Pedreño, BSCH Chairman Emilio Botín, Venezuelan ministers of Education, Héctor Navarro, and Science and Technology, Carlos Genatios, as well as Deputy Minister of Culture Manuel Espinoza.

Simultaneously to the launch of Universia in Caracas, the portal Venezuela was presented as part of the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, which makes 7,000 classic works in the Spanish language available on-line.

The initial investment in Universia Venezuela amounted to two million dollars. The Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC) is involved in the project, along with 36 institutions of higher education that account for 95 percent of the total university student body in Venezuela.

The Ibero-American project, which has a budget of 60 million dollars, currently links some 300 universities from Chile, Spain, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, while institutes of higher learning in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Portugal are preparing to become part of the on-line system.

Botín said BSCH, which has many subsidiaries in Latin America, was financing the project, but that the content on the portal was the responsibility of each participating university.

Pedreño, who has also played a key role in the creation of several other on-line projects in Spain, said “Universia is a bridge for communication and exchange aimed at narrowing the digital divide.

“It is important for universities to make use of the new technologies and place them at the service of their students and their projects,” he added.

The Spanish academic added that Universia could help consolidate networks for universities to work together, enabling them to provide joint services that a single institution may not have the capacity to offer.

The programme is a good example of bridge-building, because in each participating country it draws together a number of universities which, in turn, have ties to schools in other countries, while the state backs the initiative and the private sector finances it, Pedreño noted.

In each country where the portal has been launched, there are 30,000 files ready to be consulted, ranging from history to current events to the study plans of each of the participating universities and of schools in other countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

Universia “is a showcase for universities to display themselves abroad,” he said.

Giusepe Giannetto, dean of Venezuela’s Central University, the country’s largest, and the president of the association of university rectors, said the project was part of “a necessary transformation, due to the globalisation process, which our universities must also join.”

According to figures provided by Botín, some four million university students – one-third of all students in Ibero-America, which is comprised of all Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America as well as Spain and Portugal – have access to Universia.

The Universia network was created in Spain in July 2000, with the participation of 31 universities.

The content is divided into 60 categories, including e-mail, chat groups, on-line classrooms, scholarship and job offers, as well as ongoing research projects.

The president of the National Book Council, Maribel Espinoza, also stressed the significance of the Venezuelan section of the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, which state and private institutions have worked in a coordinated manner to put together.

In the on-line library, the Venezuelan National Library has made available historic works, sections with local political and academic figures, and a sample of the first books published in Venezuela along with a catalogue of current editions.

Minister Genatios underscored that the two projects launched simultaneously in Caracas formed part of a government strategy followed since 1999, when his ministry was created “to bring science and technology to the people.”