Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, recognized this Thursday, 23rd, the contribution that the University of Santiago (US) has made to the development of the country and to the strengthening and consolidation of higher education in Cape Verde.
The chief executive made these statements during his speech at the inauguration ceremony of the new Campus of the University of Santiago, in the city of Praia, highlighting the importance of creating a university in the northern region of the island and that the rectory took an important step in extension of the initiative in the country’s capital.
“I would like to congratulate the rectory and management body, teachers, students, non-teaching staff, the educational and academic community, and recognize US as a higher education institution, which has had the highest enrollment rate”, he stated, highlighting that You can only get the highest enrollment rate if the university is attractive.
Attraction, according to Ulisses Correia e Silva, not only in terms of its offer in terms of courses, but also in terms of quality of offer and experience, policy for attracting new students, university social action policy, highlighting the fact of being the second higher education institution in Cape Verde, with the highest percentage of teachers with a doctorate.
“US has the highest percentage of full-time professors and a notable level of internationalization of students and researchers. The fact of going beyond the borders of Cape Verde, the presence of a university in several Portuguese-speaking countries, and in other countries, also means going beyond what is our territorial circumscription”, he declared.
He highlighted the importance of the Virtual University of Santiago in combating asymmetries, noting that the Government intends to continue investing in the Internet as an essential asset with a focus on teaching and professional training.
“And we hope that the university continues on the path of excellence that has been its hallmark and can count on all that is the collaboration and interest of the Government and that is why we are here today. Affirming the quality of our higher education institutions and access policies to university social action are fundamental for young people to gain more and more confidence”, he reinforced.
The Prime Minister pointed out, on the other hand, the implementation of policies and measures as one of the Government’s priorities, aiming to increase the percentage of the population in higher education and the percentage of teachers with a doctorate in higher education institutions.
“Another ambitious goal is to reach 1.5% of GDP in investments in scientific research and with the participation of public and private investment. A set of incentives have already been created, they are in the State Budget, so that the private sector also invests in the area of research, namely applied research, because it then has a return for its own activity”, he asserted.
For his part, the rector of the University of Santiago, Gabriel Fernandes, considered it important to have the engagement of all civil society actors so that the country can overcome the challenges that exist in the higher education system.
He recalled that US was born on November 24, 2008, in Assomada, Santa Catarina, with just over 300 students and around 50 employees and after 15 years, the project is in a position to be relaunched in Praia.
“After 15 years, we are in a position to say, we have placed around 1,400 paintings on the market (…). So these 1,400 frames, they give us a bigger boost every day. We know it’s worth it. We have around 196 employees, these are direct jobs that were created in the interior of Santiago and beyond”, he declared.
He also highlighted that through the virtual UES, the teaching provided by the university covers all the islands of Cape Verde at the moment and that it has invested in internationalization, being present in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé, Portugal, Luxembourg, the United States and France.
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