University students running out of resources

Fox News Latino 23 May 2015

A simple walk around the university grounds of the Central University of Venezuela offers an eerie display of decay and neglect. The main campus, designed by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva in the 1950s and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, has been deteriorating for years, writes Franz von Bergen for Fox News Latino.

Problems have been mounting for over a decade and experts say the situation has caused droves of professors to leave their jobs and students to drop out of university. “This is the most severe crisis we’ve had as an institution,” Amalio Belmonte, Central University of Venezuela’s administrative secretary, told Fox News Latino. “[This year] the government granted us just 38% of the funds we requested to operate normally.”

In the once prestigious School of Sciences, laboratories have run out of the most basic resources – test tubes, wire gauzes, chemicals. As many as 450 aspiring scientists are currently at risk of not getting credit for the academic year at the Central University of Venezuela because, in what would be a first in 25 years, the School of Science's labs may not be operating beyond this week for lack of materials.
Full report on the Fox News Latino site

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