Alma Mater Mission : it is a Venezuelan government program, oriented to education that contemplates the creation of Territorial universities, as well as the transformation of the IUT ( University Institutes of Technology and CU ( University Colleges ) into polytechnic experimental universities. created mainly with the purpose of promoting the transformation of Venezuelan university education and promoting its institutional and territorial articulation, based on the strategic lines of the Simón Bolívar National Project, guaranteeing the right of everyone to a quality higher education without exclusions.
Objectives
The objectives of the Alma Mater Mission aim to generate a new institutional fabric of Venezuelan Higher Education, aimed at:
- Develop and transform Higher Education based on the strengthening of Popular Power and the construction of a socialist Society.
Our universities, throughout their secular existence, were cloistered institutions that formed the types of specialists that society demanded of them and shaped them for the role privileged and custodians of the current social order (…) In this sense, they operated, from always, as essentially political and classist institutions.. [[Darcy Ribeiro]]
- Guarantee the participation of all in the generation, transformation and dissemination of Knowledge.
- Claiming the humanistic character of university education as a space for the realization and construction of human beings in their fullness, in recognition of their Culture, their Environment, their belonging to humanity and their capacity for the creation of the new and the transformation of the existing.
- Strengthen a new academic model committed to inclusion and social transformation.
- Link the processes of training, research and technological development with the strategic projects of the Nation aimed at political, technological, economic, social and cultural sovereignty.
- Rooting higher education throughout the national territory, in close bond with the communities.
- Promote the articulation of the Venezuelan higher education system, under principles of solidarity cooperation.
- Promote higher education as a space for Latin American and Caribbean unity, solidarity and cooperation with the peoples of the world.
Scopes
The execution of the Alma Mater mission includes the following:
- The transformation of the IUTand CU into polytechnic experimental universities.
- Creation of 10 territorial universities.
- The Creation of specialized institutes in Higher Education.
- The creation of the Jesús Rivero Bolivarian University of Workers .
- The creation of the National Experimental University of the Peoples of the South.
- Strengthening the territorial coverage of University Education through the Alma Mater Socialist University Complexes (CUSAM).
Transformation of the IUT and CU
The Alma Mater Mission progressively transforms the 29 University Institutes and Colleges under the Ministry of Popular Power for Higher Education into National Experimental Universities, which will be integrated into the Alma Mater Network of Universities.
The 29 institutions cover 20 federal entities, have, for 2009, an enrollment of 185,000 students and have developed an important tradition in the training of Higher University Technicians (TSU) in various areas.
The transformation implies, among others, curricular changes in academic structures, the relationship with society and management models. In a first phase, the 29 University Institutes and Colleges transform their old careers into National Training Programs (NFP).
The PNF are designed to grant the title of TSU in two years and Engineering degree or four years. Additionally, they allow the granting of certifications at the end of the first year of studies and are linked to specializations and other postgraduate levels in the respective areas, since it is about building communities of knowledge capable of contributing to technological sovereignty.
In the PNF the students are in contact with the practice in the communities and the industry from the first stage of their studies, getting involved with the organizations of the People’s Power, the technological development at the service of the Nation and the problems of the production of goods and services. services, from the perspective of the Simón Bolívar National Project.
All NFPs have an Initial Path to facilitate the transition from secondary education to university, in the new educational approach.
The Institutes and University Colleges that have participated in the design of the PNF, currently dictate careers in areas analogous to those of the new programs. Therefore, they have the teaching staff, academic spaces and laboratories essential to start training from the first year in all approved PNF.
The design of the PNF allows the incorporation of Higher University Technicians, who have previously graduated, to pursue studies leading to Bachelor’s or Engineering degrees. This will make it possible within two years to have the first class of male and female engineers, male and female graduates with the new programs.
Professional updating will make it possible to respond in the short term to the professional training needs required by Strategic Projects, such as the Oil Sowing Plan and the Petrochemical Revolution.
The opportunity to carry out Bachelor or Engineering studies for TSUs also responds to the expectations of nearly one million graduates such as TSUs, who today are forced to resort to speculative educational offers from private institutions to carry out such studies.
Territorial Universities
The Universities Territorial conceived as institutions linked to the vocation and productive, social and cultural needs of specific territorial areas (cities, states, functional districts, federal provinces), aimed at democratizing access to higher education and boost endogenous development. Its training programs cover different fields of knowledge, structuring a flexible academic offer, capable of adjusting to variations in training demands.
They will have physical spaces, laboratories and equipment that guarantee a high level in their educational quality and in the development of research. These spaces and resources will be at the disposal of the Sucre Mission and other institutions of higher education in the locality that require them.
They will receive students mainly from the locality or region of location, at the same time that they will constitute an institutional support for the university municipalization in their reference area.
Each of these universities is structured as a Territorial Network of Higher Education, which integrates the Local Areas of Socialist Alternative Education (Villages) University of the Sucre Mission and is articulated with the other university institutions and the organizations of the Communal Power in its geohistorical scope..
In construction
- Alma Mater Amazonas University
- Alma Mater Anzoátegui University
- Alma Mater Apure University
- Alma Mater Aragua University
- Alma Mater Carabobo University
- Alma Mater Miranda University (Guarenas – Guatire)
- Alma Mater University Capital District
- Alma Mater Lara University
In design
- Alma Mater Barinas University.
- Alma Mater Bolívar University.
- Alma Mater Cojedes University.
- Alma Mater Mérida University.
- Alma Mater Miranda University (Tuy).
- -University Alma Mater Monagas.
- Alma Mater Nueva Esparta University.
- Portuguese Alma Mater University.
- Alma Mater Zulia University.
Specialized Universities
The Specialized Universities are constituted as National Networks, with nuclei and connections with the Territorial Universities; They develop strengths in certain areas of knowledge, their main advantage being the concentration of human talent to strengthen training programs and form research communities.
These institutions will contribute to the professional development of teachers, the strengthening of relevant research, the constitution of innovation networks and the improvement of programs, as well as the production of educational texts and materials, in each area of specialization.
Decreed
- National Experimental University of the Arts in Official Gazette No. 38,924 of Tuesday May 6, 2008.
- National Experimental University of Security in Official Gazette No. 39,120 of Friday, February 13, 2009.
In construction
- University of Basic
- University of Tourism.
In design
- University of Telecommunications and Informatics.
- University of Hydrocarbons.
- University of Languages.
- University of Economic and Fiscal Sciences.
- Health University.
- Agrifood University.
Alma Mater Socialist University Complexes
The Alma Mater Socialist University Complexes (CUSAM) are an integrated set of spaces, services and resources for university activity, located in strategic places, where the programs of various Higher Education institutions converge, in order to share, optimize resources and guarantee that The different universities in the country extend their training, research and technological development activities to physical spaces beyond their campuses.
Essentially, they constitute spaces of the Communal Power for the endogenous development of the locality and the satisfaction of the training needs, identified by the community itself.
In the CUSAM, the institutions share spaces, services and resources, facilitating the functioning of the Alma Mater University Network and developing common projects, under the principle of solidarity cooperation, which implies inter-institutional action and respect for diversity, in order to guarantee that Higher Education is closer to the different communities and local spaces. In other words, that universities go where the people are.
Currently there are three CUSAM, Boconó, in Trujillo and Araya and Cumanacoa, in Sucre.
Specialized Institutes
There is one decreed and another in design. The Latin American Institute of Agroecology Paulo Freire (IALA), this supports the agreements signed between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Landless Movement of Brazil.
The “Mayor (Av.) Miguel Rodríguez” University Institute of Civil Aeronautics was created with the purpose of stimulating and facilitating comprehensive training and professional preparation for the development of national capacities in the field of Civil Aeronautics.
Bolivarian University of Workers “Jesús Rivero”
The Bolivarian University of Workers “Jesús Rivero” was created as a National Experimental University, within the framework of the Alma Mater Mission, by Presidential Decree No. 6,499, published on November 4, 2008. Its Provisional Rectoral Council was appointed by the Minister of Power Popular for Higher Education, through Resolution 3,411, of December 5, 2008.
The Bolivarian University of Workers “Jesús Rivero” is conceived as an instrument of collective, integral and permanent self-training of the working class, and has as a precedent the struggle of the working class for the rescue of the hydrocarbon industry during the years 2002 and 2003.
University of the Peoples of the South
This aims to promote an international geopolitics from the South
Alma Mater Socialist University Complexes
The Alma Mater Socialist University Complexes (CUSAM) are an integrated set of spaces, services and resources for university activity, located in strategic places, where the programs of various Higher Education institutions converge, in order to share, optimize resources and guarantee that The different universities in the country extend their training, research and technological development activities to physical spaces beyond their campuses.
Essentially, they constitute spaces of the Communal Power for the endogenous development of the locality and the satisfaction of the training needs, identified by the community itself.
In the CUSAM, the institutions share spaces, services and resources, facilitating the functioning of the Alma Mater University Network and developing common projects, under the principle of solidarity cooperation, which implies inter-institutional action and respect for diversity, in order to guarantee that Higher Education is closer to the different communities and local spaces. In other words, that universities go where the people are.
Currently there are three CUSAM, Boconó, in Trujillo and Araya and Cumanacoa, in Sucre.
