ECUADOR: Controversial higher education law approved

Following months of acrimonious debate, the Ecuadorean congress last week narrowly approved a controversial new higher-education law, according to Ecuadorean news reports, writes Marion Lloyd for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The legislation seeks to increase regulation of universities while bringing their programmes in line with the country's development needs. But it does not go as far as President Rafael Correa had wanted.

Still, its opponents, who include the rectors of many of the country's more than 70 institutions of higher education, fear the new law will strip away hard-won university autonomy. The original bill would have empowered President Correa, a former economics professor, to name the heads of a newly-created National Council for Higher Education, a semi-autonomous body that would oversee university administration and academics.
Full report on The Chronicle of Higher Education site