Ecuador’s president has threatened to close down a number of universities if they fail to make major improvements. Rafael Correa, who has dubbed the institutions “garage universities”, has threatened to shut 24 privately owned and two state-run institutions that have received failing grades from his government, The New York Times reported. Mr Correa, a former economics professor, has made higher education reform a priority after recently stating that Ecuador had “probably the worst universities” in South America. He added that many of the threatened institutions – which cater for more than 69,000 students – “are cheating their students because they don’t have the minimum elements to guarantee academic excellence”. His government began an overhaul of Ecuador’s 71 universities in 2009.
Source: Times Higher Education http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=419454&c=1