Scrawled on a classroom blackboard: “Let's leave pessimism for better times. Venezuela is worth gold.'' “Blaming ex-chavistas and opposition parties has brought us to this dead-end we're in.''
Venezuela's 'University of the Future' Is Dry and Crumbling
The economic crisis left USB as a shadow of its former self.
Simon Bolivar University -- motto: The University of the Future -- is still considered the premier science and technology school in Venezuela. Although, today it looks more like a forgotten piece of a once prosperous nation.
For decades after it opened in 1970, USB was government funded and tuition was subsidized. As the economy cratered under the regime of Nicolas Maduro, money for education grew scarce. Private donations from alumni living abroad pay to replace computers and buy library books these days. The ranks of educators are thinning, with more and more physics, chemistry and engineering classes being taught via Skype by graduates living in other countries. A full professor earns just around $25 a month.
If opposition leader Juan Guaido succeeds in ousting Maduro from the presidency, repairing the nation's university system will be one of the formidable tasks on the new government's urgent to-do list.
Photographs by Marcelo Perez del Carpio/Bloomberg