Economic crisis forces slowdown at universities

Teachers unable to pay the bus fare to get to class; students stuck in long supermarket lines in the quest for affordable food: Venezuela’s academics say the deep economic crisis is paralysing the country's universities, writes Alex Vasquez for AFP.

Venezuela's universities have long ranked as among Latin America's best. But the acute economic and political crisis has forced students to drop out in droves, and teachers are following them out of the country.

Last month, the University of Zulia in the north-western city of Maracaibo cut courses to three days a week to try to ease the problems that students, professors and employees are facing just to turn up each day. “We are working every day, but we are organising ourselves so that every teacher, student or employee comes about three times a week,” said Judith Aular, rector of the University of Zulia. Lectures and study material are given out over the internet the rest of the time.
Full report on the Digital Journal site