Costa Rica News – It seems that if you have enough money you can get whatever degree you want at Costa Rica’s private universities and schools. I had a friend of mine that tutors students in Costa Rica, that one of her middle school student’s parents would pay his teachers to pass him. No big surprise this happens at every level of private schools in Costa Rica.
We are not saying this applies to everyone, we are only saying that this happens, so do not get your panties in a bunch if you graduated from one of these schools with a legit degree. The lack of clear rules and budget prevents the exercise of sufficient control over the quality of education in the 52 private universities operating in Costa Rica.
Conesup, the body permitting these universities, recognized that no funds are delegated to ensure that institutions comply with the conditions promised at the time of the permit application.
The executive director of the National Council of Private Higher Education University (Conesup), Evelyn Chen, said the attention of the high volume of requests and authorizations consume most of the budget of the agency.
“We need to provide more resources to Conesup, both financial and human to enable it to carry out its inspection function more quickly, accurately and consistently,” said Chen.
He also warned of the absence of strict rules to punish defaulting entities in regards service standards.
Guillermo Vargas, president of the National Higher Education Accreditation (SINAES), said the country has no capacity to attend to many universities and therefore some of them have become “degree mills and scams.” In other words just giving degrees to students that pay enough. This is like the US universities that pass certain athletes, except that these students are just buying their degrees in Costa Rica.
The Union of Private University Rectors (Unire) stated the problem is that the Conesup does not even have clear rules about academic quality.
In the third report of the State for Education, it is stated that Conesup “establishes the minimum conditions for the operation of universities, but does not ensure a framework of excellence.”
This report highlights the major problems identified by the Council in its inspections are irregular validation of subjects, irregularities with BA and missing subjects in curricula.
There are also frequent complaints by the accreditation of teachers, universities that work without authorization.
Professional representatives expressed great concern about the quality of university graduates.
As The Costa Rican Times stated before the core problem in Costa Rica is the education system.
