Higher education in Cuba

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Unlike the Great Viceroyalties — like those of Perú and New Spain (Mexico) — and the other more densely populated regions in the continent such as Guatemala or Ecuador where universities, colleges and seminaries of higher education were established since the sixteenth century, such educational pursuit began much later in Cuba's capital of Havana. In January 1728, the Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo (the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Jerome) was founded in Havana by the authority granted to the order of the Dominican friars. The university was established at the Convent of San Juan de Letrán, within the city's walls, not far from the Cathedral and the urban center at the Plaza.

From its beginning, San Gerónimo had the same characteristics and academic divisions as the University of Santo Tomás de Aquino, the first university of Spain in the Americas. This university, also run by the Dominicans, was authorized in 1528 in Santo Domingo for the distinction granted to the Island of La Española in the early stages of the conquest and colonization of the New World.

Notwithstanding the almost 200 years between their respective founding, both universities were organized according to the objectives, plans and programs of the University of Salamanca, based on the dogmatic approach of Aristotelian-Thomistic scholasticism, using memorization instead of experimentation and analysis as the preferred teaching method. Most prevalent at the time, under a Spain that was the bearer of the accords reached at the Council of Trent during the second half of the cinquecento, was Theology and its "revealed truths," followed by Speculative Philosophy and Canonical and Civil Law, the latter based on Justinian Law and the teachings of Alphonse X (the Wise). Other disciplines — Medicine, for example — had to wait until the nineteenth century to be included in the university curriculum and to gain a corresponding social recognition.

As a consequence of the absence in Cuba of a single place of higher learning, the young people, mostly from rich families who were interested in scholarship, went abroad to pursue academic degrees. Until the eighteenth century, the people living in the western portion of the Island, particularly in Havana, went primarily to Mexico or Spain, while those in the eastern part of the Island — as in Santiago de Cuba and Puerto Príncipe (today Camagüey) — went to Santo Domingo or Spain. It was the beginning of what became the norm and, in the long run, it facilitated the introduction in Cuba of more advanced studies modeled after French, German or North American universities, and fields of knowledge that — despite the limitations of San Gerónimo — made their way to the classrooms introduced by native (criollos) professors, mitigating in part the effects of scholasticism.

For various reasons, including the economic development from sugar production and foreign mercantile trade, along with the appearance of the Cuban nationalism, proposals were made for reforms in San Gerónimo as a way to foster prosperity, culture and the production of wealth within the favorable international climate of the first decades of the nineteenth century. Although these initiatives were not implemented in San Gerónimo, they found fertile ground at the Colegio Seminario San Carlos y San Ambrosio in Havana, and at the Colegio San Basilio el Magno in Santiago de Cuba.

This favorable international juncture that advanced the reexamination and reconfiguration of programs and courses of study in San Carlos and in San Basilio was facilitated by: the independence of the thirteen British colonies in North America in 1783, which increased commercial exchanges between Cuba and the United States; the tumultuous situation in Europe due to the process triggered by the French Revolution in 1789 and the subsequent Napoleonic era; the continental blockade imposed by England and its dramatic effects on the Iberian Peninsula (especially Spain, a co-participant in the continuous state of war in Europe; and the occupation of Spain by the French who imposed José Bonaparte on the Spanish throne between 1808 and 1813, causing years of civil war, and leading to the First Spanish Revolution of the nineteenth century, with the liberals holding an unstable political power between 1808 and 1812. All this, coupled with the revolution of the slaves at the French Saint Domingue that erupted in 1791, unchained the process for independence in the continental colonies of the Spanish monarchy. Saint Domingue's economic downfall created an opportunity for Cuba to gain a privileged position in providing tropical products for the world market.

Changes for education were authorized in San Carlos under the Bishopric of the Progressive Basque Diego E. Díaz de Espada y Fernández de Landa (1800-1832), and they were also presented — with less success — at San Basilio, in Santiago de Cuba under the direction of Archbishop Joaquín Osés y Alzúa (1791-1823). During those decades, with the help of native intellectuals, the secular clergy took over the leadership in higher education in Cuba from the Dominicans of San Gerónimo for a brief period of time in spite of the fact that the colonial authorities never empowered the seminaries with any right to grant higher level degrees, except in Theology. They did give them the right to teach subjects, such as Philosophy and Law, at a corresponding high level, with the requirement that examinations be taken at the university in order to receive their degrees. San Carlos and San Basilio took full advantage of this opening by going against the scholastic grain, promoting the study of philosophers and scientists such as Descartes, Locke and Newton, as well as French encyclopedists. Studies of nature, particularly in experimental Physics were incorporated or expanded in the seminaries; while in Law, courses of study that were behind the times in content and in bibliography were overhauled although only briefly, due to the troubles of liberalism in Spain) with repercussions throughout the nineteenth century. It was then that, for a brief period of time, Constitutional Law was taught at San Carlos with the study of the 1812 Spanish Liberal Constitution.

Two Cuban religious figures, of revered memory, were at the vanguard of these changes: the presbyter José Agustín Caballero who introduced them and, above all, the presbyter Félix Varela Morales, professor of Philosophy at San Carlos (who Bishop Espada placed in charge of teaching Constitutional Law) and author of philosophical treatises in Spanish instead of the traditional Latin, the language traditionally required for texts and lectures.

Varela is one of the major Cuban historical figures of the first half of the nineteenth century, not only because of his exemplary academic mentoring, but for a life devoted to the highest purpose: procuring freedom for Cuba and its people. His endeavors made him a political exile from 1823 onward in the United States, where he died in 1853. By then he was already an example to Cuban youth for his patriotic dedication to the best causes, carried out with an intelligent and generous humanitarianism.

Varela's teaching and his example in San Carlos, shared by other professors — Cubans as well - transformed the ecclesiastical institution into a mine for the preparation of learned youth, active and concerned with the country's advances in many diverse fields, in spite of the indignities and irritations imposed by the distant metropolis. Among other men, it is worth mentioning Domingo Del Monte, who advanced culture through his famous literary tertulias, in which he introduced a kind of romanticism where the national soul throbbed. Also worth mentioning is José Antonio Saco, a professor at San Carlos who wrote on many varied topics and was a brilliant debater in defense of social values that were already in crisis; the altruistic and wise José de la Luz Caballero, a philosopher and maestro for many generations to come; and Cirilo Villaverde, a vigorous patriot and author of Cecilia Valdés, the best Cuban novel of the century. Del Monte and Villaverde, as well as Varela, were all exiled; Luz Caballero was unjustly indicted and tried.

Nevertheless, such splendid years in San Carlos and San Basilio did not last, due to the intensification of colonialist reaction, based on a fear that Cuba would follow the example of the continent and its leaders, such as Hidalgo, Bolivar, San Martín or Sucre. Special laws were enacted exclusively for Cuba and Puerto Rico, as if they were "plazas under siege." The Captain Generals were invested with "all-embracing powers" in order to guarantee obedience and to prevent dangerous notions of freedom.

Once more San Gerónimo imposed its Latinism, scholasticism and archaic ways; a situation that lasted well into the second half of the century, although some changes were permitted. For example, professors were allowed to teach in the Spanish language, fields of study increased in the number of schools or faculties and the teaching of Theology was reserved for the seminaries. The Dominican University disappeared in 1842 and its place was taken by the Real Universidad - Literaria- de la Habana (Royal and Literary University of Havana), at the former convent of San Juan de Letrán. It became the only remaining Spanish university in the Americas until 1898, a year when Spain definitively lost all that remained of its New World empire: Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The persistence of colonial negligence regarding higher education in the country continued to promote travel abroad in order to pursue higher studies. Especially as regards Medicine, Cuban graduates were returning from abroad, from the universities of Montpellier and Paris in France, or from Bellevue and Jefferson Medical College in the United States. There were also improvements in Pharmacy, Dental Surgery and Engineering, although there were no degree-granting departments for the latter disciplines in the Real Universidad, relying exclusively on examinations of the appropriate documents by a Board that approved equivalencies. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a Surgery Medical degree gained more prestige but Law continued to be the degree of choice for the richest and most influential social class.

Other degrees were officially added, like those granted by the schools of Natural and Exact Sciences (later known as Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry, both minor faculties providing complementary offerings, since Law, Medicine and Pharmacy remained the major disciplines until the end of Spanish rule.

However, these insufficiencies in higher education in Cuba did not prevent the emergence of outstanding and internationally recognized Cuban scientists. Among others we find José Antonio Saco in History and other social sciences, Felipe Poey and Carlos de la Torre Huerta in the Natural Sciences (particularly in Ichthyology and the study of mollusks), Francisco de Albear in Hydraulic Engineering and Alvaro Reynoso in Agronomy. But the most conspicuous and varying accomplishments took place in Medicine as a result of a process that started in the beginning of the nineteenth century with Tomás Romay, and culminated in the same century with Carlos J. Finlay's brilliant contribution to humanity by discovering the transmitting agent of yellow-fever: the aedes aegypti mosquito. The National School of Medicine in Cuba undertook the treatment and eradication of the devastating disease.

More than solely counting on the Real Universidad, where some of them were professors and where they left their own imprints despite so many obstacles, these and other researchers were able to count on the support of the main institutions created under native initiatives, for example the Academy of Medical, Physics and Natural Sciences of Cuba, and the Anthropological Society of Havana, both of which were active and produced publications, where scientists, their research and the advancement of sciences in Cuba were all celebrated or debated at scientific gatherings.

The twentieth century began with the country ruined and decimated as a result of the nineteenth century wars against Spain, a situation aggravated by the frustration of the ideals of independence under the military occupation of Cuba by North American intervention troops. A new power, the United States, was taking the place formerly occupied by the weaker Spain. Cuba was thus converted from a colonial status to a neocolonial one, after the northern country's victory over Spain in 1898. This was ratified by the Paris Treaty that led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands, and to the first military occupation of Cuba lasting until 1902; experiences which transformed Cuba into a puppet state under the tutelage of Washington, D.C. This was a situation of dependency that, in terms of higher education, gave rise to important and generally favorable changes.

The North American government of intervention approved the transfer of the university buildings from the very old and ruinous convent of San Juan de Letrán to a new setting at the limits of the city, the Loma de Aróstegui (Arostegui's Hill), which has since been renamed University Hill or Colina Universitaria, taking full advantage of obsolete military installations.

The physical transfer was accompanied by the reassessment and improvement of university projects and programs through the opening of new schools with more emphasis on technology than on the humanities, as for example, the creation of the schools of Engineering and of Architecture in 1900. The University of Havana thus emerged and thrived under the direction of another eminent personality of Cuban culture, Enrique José Varona, to whom we owe the first plan of studies of the republican university, already under Cuban administration.

The new university began to operate independently, utilizing its longstanding experience, especially in deciding precisely what it should not be. An important part of this legacy, worth mentioning in this case, was the active and essential — critical even to the extent of rebellious intransigence confrontation on the part of the university students against corruption and the opportunistic demagogy that characterized the governments — which succeeded one another— in the abuse of power throughout the first half of the twentieth century, to 1959. Student opposition had reached its greatest intensity during the struggle against Gerardo Machado's dictatorship between 1920 and 1930, and against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s. These student confrontations are deeply rooted in an event from colonial times: the 1871 execution by a firing squad of eight medical students who were innocent of the political crime they were charged with in order to suppress their well-known repudiation of the tyranny and the arrogance typical of the representatives of the Spanish government in Cuba. This assassination was accompanied by the imprisonment and deportation of many other students, despite the rejection and denunciations made by honest Spaniards who, nevertheless, could not prevent many tragic outcomes.

In the twentieth century, the University of Havana raised that heroic flag on the hands of students and the civic vanguard of its faculty, sharing in their lot of horror and death, inscribing names of murdered youths in the annals of resistance: Julio A. Mella in the struggle against Machado, José A. Echevarría against Batista.

Consistent with the situation in the country, always in a dependent and precarious state, life at the university suffered from frequent problems that affected the academic activities in the classrooms, workshops, labs and other settings. Notwithstanding, excellent professionals were educated and graduated from its different schools: physicians, pharmacists, veterinarians, engineers, architects, agronomists, teachers, philologists, economists, accountants and many other professionals and humanists. Its teaching, facilitated by the supportive role of libraries, museums and specialized departments, attained prestige but some imperfections and inadequacies were noted not only at the University of Havana, the Alma Mater, but at the recently founded University of Oriente (1947) in the city of Santiago de Cuba, the Central University of Las Villas (1952) near the city of Santa Clara and at two small private universities: the Masonic José Martí and the elitist Catholic University of Santo Tomás de Villanueva.

In general, higher education in Cuba was criticized because it was deficient in regard to the requirements for the development of the country and because enrollment was scarce. In the 1950s enrollment did not exceed 15,000 students in a total population of six million inhabitants. There was an imbalance in current and proposed career programs, with a persistent domination of the humanities and insufficient or out-of-date specializations in the sciences. The pedagogical methods followed by professors were passive and depended on memorization. The quality, the character, the extension and the depth of the research carried out by the students under the tutelage or advice of the professors were insufficient. 

As in the past, many young people belonging to wealthy families chose to finish or to improve their careers abroad -- in the United States primarily —and they did not always return to work in Cuba. And, just as long ago, the need for change was obvious, with an emphasis on linking teaching to scientific, experimental and modern research which could be most useful in solving the country's problems, as had been proposed by Varela and Varona in their days.

In January 1959, the current stage of development of higher education in Cuba commenced. It was then that the revolutionary, radical and dynamic government gained power in the country and promoted significant modifications that had to consider higher education as part of a more extensive social project. The comprehensive National Education System and its structure, in dire need at the Island, was at the heart of the very system that Fidel Castro had proposed in his historic defense known as History Will Absolve Me.

With these aims in mind, the revolutionary government made it clear that education, was of the highest priority and responsibility, starting from the very first letters of the alphabet, embracing the life of all the people. Through a gigantic mobilization of resources and volunteers, relying primarily on the participation of young people, a literacy campaign was so successful that, after just one year, Cuba was declared "a territory free from illiteracy." But that was just the beginning since, at the same time, laws were enacted which established that education to the highest level was free for all the people, while rejecting all differences derived from gender, race, religion or social origin. Private teaching centers were nationalized and incorporated into the National Education System, declaring that every opportunity for education would be available to anyone who wished to pursue it to the highest levels.

In January 1962, reform began at the universities, modifying its regime in order to reorganize the structure of its institutions. Thus, the country proceeded to carry out multiple research projects in heterogeneous fields since new courses of study and centers for teaching and research in higher education were created. This massive national restructuring of education was sufficiently funded at every level of the budgeting process, securing the required funds for the establishment of an extensive system of scholar-ships. Specialties were modified so as to serve the demands of social development, and the application of a principle stated by José Martí was approved. Henceforth, the totality of education would operate under Marts rubric: "linking study and productive work." According to statistical data, between 1959 and 1971 enrollment at universities grew by 10,000 students. By 1997, 100,000 out of a total population of 11 million were engaged in higher education.

The intense period of growth from the three universities that were operating in 1959 to 27 university centers distributed throughout the Island by 1976, led to the creation of a Ministry of Higher Education, separate from the Ministry of Education. Nowadays, including the Isle of Youth, Cuba has a total of 51 centers of higher education, some of which have their own independent faculties or university branches.

The distribution by careers and branches of studies of those 51 establishments is as follows:

• Social Sciences and the Humanities: Technical and Information Sciences and Librarian Studies, Psychology, Philology, Law, History of Art, Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Social Communications and History, Sociology and Foreign Languages (English, German, French and Russian).
• Medical Sciences: Medicine, Dentistry,Pharmacy.
• Economics: Economics and Accounting.
• Technical Sciences: Engineering (Hydraulic, Civil, Industrial, Metallurgical, Mining, Geological, Telecommunications and Electronics, Chemical, Mechanical, Information Technologies, Electrical), Architecture.
• Nuclear Sciences and Technology: Nuclear Engineering, Nuclear Physics and Chemistry.
• Military Sciences: Military Strategy and Command, Military Engineering and Military Law.
• Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Physics, Geography, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Chemistry, Biology, Nutrition, Pharmaceutical Sciences.
• Agriculture and Cattle Sciences: Veterinary Medicine, Mechanized Agriculture and Cattle Production, Forestry and Agronomy. 
• Design: Industrial, Advertising.
• Pedagogical Sciences: Labor Education and Technical Drawing, Musical Education, Plastic Education, Chemistry, Geography, Mathematics and Computational Sciences, Spanish Language and Literature, Physics, Electronics, Philosophy and History, English Language, Biology, Primary Education and Pre-School.
• Technical and Professional Education: Mechanics, Electricity, Construction, Mechanization, Agriculture and Cattle, Economics.
• Art Sciences: Stage and Plastic Arts, Dance, Audio-Visual and Media, Music.
• Physical Education: Sports, Physical Education and Recreation.

As one can see, there are many offerings for pursuing higher education in Cuba and, as was mentioned, they are available throughout the country. The City of Havana is still the place with the greater concentration and better options due to its population density and the fact that it is the capital of the nation.

The Ministry of Higher Education maintains 15 adjunct institutes and, due to related interests and converging functions, it is closely connected to the following ministries or institutions: Education; Public Health; Culture; Sciences, Technology and Environment; Revolutionary Armed Forces; Interior; Foreign Affairs; National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation; National Office of Industrial Design; Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Every province in the country has a university center for the study of Medicine and Pedagogy. Two basic objectives of post-graduate education are specialization based on current research and the systematic training of all candidates for degrees in order to increase the productivity, quality and efficacy of their work. This academic training, and in-depth research on scientific, technical and humanistic topics is acknowledged through official certificates, the master's degree, and the doctorate. The latter degree is issued by the National Commission of Scientific Degrees, which is attached to the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, in turn presided over by the Minister of Higher Education.

The Ph.D. is supervised at higher educational centers (like the University of Havana) and in scientific institutes (as in the Academy of Sciences), expressly authorized by the National Commission of Scientific Degrees. Programs for the master's and post-graduate degrees are devised and administered by higher educational centers, together with other institutes authorized by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Other forms of furthering professional training, some of which are continuing programs and others of shorter duration, are the diploma programs, special courses and training, specialized conferences, workshops, seminaries and scientific debates. All of them are useful since they facilitate scientific exchange through analysis and public discussion of the latest advances in sciences, technology and culture.

With approximately 50% of the whole scientific potential of the country concentrated on higher education, its importance is evident and ever increasing since the Ministry of Higher Education also gives priority to a program of continuing training for all faculty until they attain the highest degree of Ph.D. Forty-five percent of the faculty at the University of Havana have their doctorates. The objectives of such sustained scientific training is to achieve high international competitiveness by offering post-graduate studies leading to the Ph.D. degree at most universities, institutes of advanced studies and centers of higher education.

In recent years, the Cuban university training of youth from Latin America has acquired high-level support and visibility in Cuba and much impact abroad. These foreign students receive a free education in specialized institutes created for that purpose by a uniquely qualified faculty. After graduation, students are expected to return to their respective countries and to work for social justice, concentrating on the most helpless sectors of their societies.

The emphasis has been on Medicine, e.g., the Latin-American School of Medical Sciences, whose enrollment recently increased from 500 to 1,000 fellowships, with Central Americans and Venezuelans in the majority. Under the slogan "to humanize medicine," enrollment is expected to grow to 5,000 students during 2002.

Another example is the International School of Physical Education and Sports, with 600 fellowship students. Its altruistic purpose is to improve the health levels of the population in the region and to help their countries become competitive in international events, to contribute in fighting the commercialization of sports, and to better match people sharing both history and culture through training by high-level sport professionals.

Such higher education centers are possible in Cuba today thanks to the recognized achievement of Cuban medicine, public health and sports, as well as to the renowned commitment to internationalism of the Cuban people. Today, in Cuba, there are more university graduates than the number of sixth graders in 1959. In sports, Cuba was first in the most recent Olympic games when taking into account medals per capita. For its medicine, public health, education, sports and physical culture, Cuba today holds a position comparable to that of the most advanced countries in the world. According to recent data, one out of seven workers in Cuba holds an advanced degree.

With its variety of interests and widespread geographic distribution of higher education centers, Cuba's scientific specializations have met the challenge of regional economies and cultures. The University of Havana, for instance, comprises 14 schools or faculties, an institute and centers devoted to the study of management, demography, international economy, the Cuban economy, the United States, Cuban migrations and marine research. It also has a Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, an Institute of Materials and Reactive Agents for Electronics and a National Botanical Garden.

In another first rank institution, the Instituto Superior Politécnico José A. Echevarría (High Polytechnic Institute), there are five schools and centers for hydraulic research, research on microelectronics, electro-energies and renewable energy technology, management techniques, process engineering, construction, innovation and maintenance, tropical architecture, information systems, training for professors of engineering and architecture in the use of Informatics and a center for the study of advanced technologies.

Around the country there are centers for the study of: the integral utilization of the vegetal biomass (University of Pinar del Río); anticorrosive and tensor-active materials (University of Matanzas); chemical bio-actives, electro-energies and sugar thermo-energies (Central University; oil-hydraulics and pneumatics (University of Cienfuegos) and applied electromagnetism (University of Oriente).

With those and other teaching and research centers, the current condition of higher education in Cuba is far beyond what it was in 1959. With a payroll of close to 25,000 specialized professionals, the advancement of the country is on track towards the highest levels of scientific achievement required by a competitive twenty-first century.