After criticizing Javier Milei, Gustavo Petro regulated free public university education in Colombia

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petrowrote a decree for regulate the implementation of free in the first stage of public university education, after having criticized Javier Milei for having included in the omnibus law that was sent to Congress an article that seeks charge a fee to non-resident foreigners permanent students who study in public universities in Argentina.

“I have signed the decree of free higher public education in Colombia. It was a campaign promise and today it is a reality,” Petro said today on his social network account X, formerly Twitter.

Furthermore, he added: “I will seek to make higher education a right for every person who lives in Colombia. On this path I will allocate 2.8 billion of the national budget for next year and 1.5 billion will be allocated to increase university infrastructure.”

In Colombia, the new free policy, called “University in your Territory”, will begin to be implemented in the first half of 2024 and presents various new features.

Some of these changes are “the relaxation of requirements in relation to socioeconomic status, age, nationality, prioritization of indigenous populations, Afro-descendants, victims of armed conflict, people with disabilities, mothers who are heads of households, people deprived of freedom,” detailed a statement from the Ministry of Education on its website.

“We are taking a significant step towards the consolidation of education as a fundamental rightso that each and every Colombian has the opportunity to access a quality education that allows them to live with dignity, in conditions of equity,” said the Minister of Education, Aurora Vergara, after learning of the signing of the decree.

Meanwhile, Senator María José Pizarro, author of Law 2,307, which establishes free Colombian public higher education, said through her social networks: “It is a reality! From now on, higher education public will be free for everyone and all Colombians”.

“This law is a triumph of the student movement, of the teacher movement, who for decades were fighting so that all people in Colombia could access free education,” Pizarro added.

The initiative will be financed by the General Budget of the Nation and the Ministry will transfer to educational institutions “the resources necessary to cover the net ordinary enrollment of the beneficiaries,” specified the Colombian Ministry of Education.

Petro strongly questioned Milei this Friday for his intention to eliminate free access to university for foreigners without permanent residence in the country. In that sense, the Colombian president announced that he would receive 20,000 students of that nationality, whom shown “expelled” from Argentina.

“We will receive 20,000 Colombian students who are educated for free in Argentina. They are literally expelled from that country, For them there was no so-called ‘freedom’wrote the Colombian president, also on social networks.

The draft “omnibus law” that Milei sent to Congress on Thursday includes the possibility that public universities and “state-managed higher education institutions” begin to charge a fee to those who are not native Argentines or by choice, or foreigners who They do not have permanent residence and want to study a career.

According to the latest figures available in Argentina (for the year 2021-2022), some 76,130 foreigners completed undergraduate or graduate studies and 12,471 postgraduate offers at state universities.

The Synthesis of University Statistics Information estimated that 7,235 Colombians study undergraduate and graduate level in state management entities, behind Peru (13,692), Brazil (13,152), Paraguay (9,786), Bolivia (8,738) and Venezuela (7,361). . .

On the other hand, the majority of foreigners who study at the postgraduate level in public universities are from Colombia: there are 3,623, ahead of the 2,497 from Ecuador.