{"id":168256,"date":"2025-06-11T01:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/sin-categoria\/nicaragua-attorney-general-now-controls-university-grants\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T20:54:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T02:54:38","slug":"nicaragua-attorney-general-now-controls-university-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/nicaragua-attorney-general-now-controls-university-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicaragua: Attorney General Now Controls University Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

University scholarships in Nicaragua were suspended in the last few weeks, and students asked to resubmit their requests to the Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> (Procuraderia General de la Republica, o PGR). Recent changes to the Law for the Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education has assigned this entity the \u201cregency\u201d of the public universities.<\/p>\n\n

Important changes to the Autonomy Law were approved in the Nicaraguan National Assembly in early June. Before the text of the new law was even published in the official La Gaceta<\/a> on Monday, June 9, 2025, students from several public universities in Nicaragua denounced the cancellation of their scholarships on social media.<\/p>\n\n

A video released by university students, whose identity has been protected for security reasons, notes that \u2013 as of the law reform \u2013 academic scholarships are to be administered by the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n

The images show the students lining up at a delegation of the Procuradur\u00eda, where they were allegedly taken by authorities of their university to start a new scholarship application process.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThey took us at 3:00 p.m. and we left at 6:00 p.m., leaving several still waiting for their turn, because the lines were super long,\u201d commented a student.<\/p>\n\n

The university students\u2019 denunciation was confirmed on June 10, when a call for applications to academic scholarships offered by the Attorney General\u2019s Office was posted on the official web pages of the National Engineering University, the Managua branch of the Nicaraguan National Autonomous University (UNAN), and the National Polytechnic University (UNP).<\/p>\n\n

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Scholarship announcements published by UNAN-Managua, Universidad Nacional Polit\u00e9cnica and UNI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Following the students\u2019 original posting of their situation, sympathizers of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo called out the university students\u2019 posts as fake. \u201cFalse. They\u2019re only asking the students to fulfill one more requirement, so that later their documentation can be filed with the Attorney General\u2019s Office,\u201d the comments read. <\/p>\n\n

According to the posted process, applicants for academic scholarships must now write a letter of application addressed to the self-appointed \u201cco-presidents\u201d Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo; attach their registration form, transcript, copy of identity card; and complete a form provided by the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n

Documents must be submitted to the PGR Monday through Sunday during business hours. The application process for academic scholarships ends on June 20, 2025. <\/p>\n\n

Attorney General\u2019s Office now in charge of the public university system<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

According to the change in the law, the Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a>, together with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, will take charge of \u201call financial, budgetary and accountability aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Prior to the reform<\/em>, the Ministry of Finance was responsible for approving the policy for distributing the funds allocated to the universities \u2013 a sum representing 6% of the national budget by Nicaraguan law. Now, it lists the 12 universities that will receive money from the national budget but also leaves open the possibility of allocating resources to private universities. The administrative powers have been moved to the Attorney General. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIn financial, budgetary, and accountability matters, the universities, will follow the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, and will be under the regencia [regency] of the Attorney General\u2019s Office,\u201d reads the amended<\/em> Autonomy Law. <\/p>\n\n

Ernesto Medina, academic and former rector of the UNAN in Leon and of the private Americana University, explained that it\u2019s the first time the Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> appears within the Autonomy Law. He warned that if the word \u201cregente\u201d (authority) is interpreted as defined in the Spanish Royal Academy of the Language, then this entity is being named to \u201cgovern\u201d the universities.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIf the Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> is going to have regency, it means they\u2019ll be governing the universities,\u201d he continued, \u201cthroughout the entire text, the reformed law speaks of the role of the Technical Secretariat and the National Council of Rectors [not of the Attorney General\u2019s Office]. So we don\u2019t know what they really want, they can\u2019t express it, and instead they\u2019re confusing everything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

More than 50,000 university scholarships<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

In 2023, the annual statistical report issued by the now-extinct National Council of Universities <\/a>(CNU) reported \u201c55,764 student scholarships at a national level.\u201d However, that document doesn\u2019t specify which of those scholarships were for the public universities and which for attending private universities. <\/p>\n\n

In 2024, reports from official sources informed that 19,650 scholarships were awarded for the public universities directly under the CNU. Of these, 4,340 were scholarships which included room, board, health care and other services. The other 15,310 were \u201cexternal grants\u201d that merely consisted of a small sum awarded to students for their transportation fees. The public universities in Nicaragua are free. <\/p>\n\n

In January 2025, Ramona Rodriguez<\/a>, former CNU president, declared that between the CNU scholarships and an additional 28,000 scholarships offered to the private universities, the total number of scholarships awarded in Nicaragua would reach 50,000 this year.<\/p>\n\n

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Workers of the Universidad Nacional de Ingenier\u00eda, in Managua \/\/Photo: taken from UNI <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

No trace of university autonomy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The regime\u2019s changes in the law also eliminated the National Council of Universities (CNU) and the National Education System\u2019s Council for Evaluation and Accreditation,<\/a> which in theory enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy. In their place, the law now establishes the Technical Secretariat for Attention to Universities, which is subordinated to the Presidency of the Republic. <\/p>\n\n

The law now transfers \u201cthe financial and patrimonial resources, real estate and property, vehicles, computer and office equipment and systems, furniture and any other items registered to the National Council of Universities (CNU) and the National Council of Evaluation and Accreditation of the National Educational System (CNEA) to the Technical Secretariat for Attention to the Universities,\u201d reads the third article.<\/p>\n\n

The subordination of the Technical Secretariat to the Presidency is stated explicitly in another article of the law: \u201cThe Technical Secretariat for Attention to the Universities is created under the sectorial leadership of the Presidency and will act as the Secretariat of the National Council of University Rectors.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Among the functions of the Technical Secretariat described is the duty to \u201csubmit a draft of the National Policy of Higher Education to the Presidency for its approval.\u201d This direct subordination to the presidency did not exist until the recent change in the law.<\/p>\n\n

To Medina, this reform shows that the regime \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what it wants and hasn\u2019t found the most ideal way [it desires] to totally control the universities. He recalled that the regime has made \u201cthree extensive reforms\u201d to the Law for Universitry Autonomy. <\/p>\n\n

More universities depend on 6%.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The changes also incorporate the new universities created through the confiscation of private universities<\/a> into the pool of institutions that will divide the total resources allocated \u2013 by law, 6% of the national budget of Nicaragua.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Among the universities that already received 6% money are:<\/p>\n\n