As a result of the problems that have arisen after some students at the Popular University of Cesar, UPC, lost the benefits of zero enrollment, the rector, Rober Romero, announced that the Financial Division will be suspended starting this Monday, January 22, with the purpose of “carrying out the parameterization of the system in order to apply the new guidelines of the free policy.”
According to the Ministry of Education, the policy of free tuition will only be implemented for undergraduate programs “offered in any modality by public Higher Education Institutions”, this also includes technical, technological or university professional training, in addition of training through propaedeutic cycles.
This benefit consists of the payment of the value of the ordinary net tuition of students in undergraduate programs at the IES, “with a charge to the resources allocated by the national government.” Now, the duration of this benefit “corresponds to the number of academic periods to be covered by the Free Tuition Policy.”
WHO CAN APPLY?
To be able to access zero enrollment, it is important that students meet certain stipulated requirements, including not having a university professional degree; demonstrate belonging to socioeconomic stratum 1, 2, 3, or no stratum; belong to an indigenous population; Rrom population (gypsies); belonging to black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquera communities.
People who are part of a population that is a victim of the conflict can also obtain the benefit of zero enrollment; disabled population; peasant communities and population deprived of liberty.
Once the person applies as a candidate for the zero enrollment benefit, a validation of compliance with access requirements will be carried out.
With the update of the parameters, some UPC students did not meet the requirements, so the benefit was taken away. On the other hand, some students’ Sisbén scores changed, which is why the Ministry of Education removed them from the program, and others have problems because there have been errors in the information between the Ministry and the university.