Peru: private sector urged to help universities battling deficits

The body responsible for overseeing higher education in Peru is seeking new ways to address the huge deficits sustained by public universities.

The Superintendency for University Higher Education (Sunedu) was created as part of an ongoing programme of higher education reform. The country’s public universities, it estimates, run an annual deficit of Peruvian Sol 317 million (£75 million) on infrastructure and Peruvian Sol 15 million on maintenance. 

In order to try and plug this hole, Sunedu has organised the first meeting between representatives of leading companies and the country’s major national universities in order to look at opportunities for infrastructure development and to present its Works for Taxes programme.

This would allow private enterprises to provide finance to state-run universities seeking to upgrade their infrastructure projects, provide training for their academics or upgrade their institutions for the purposes of official licensing.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com