REDISEÑO DEL MANUAL DE FUNCIONES

The Education, Science, Culture and Sports Minister is Mrs. Irene Dick. The structure of the current education system in Curacao is based on the Dutch system and was established on Curacao in 2002 (EP-Nuffic, 2011). In the Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it has been stated that education belongs to the own affairs of member states. Curacao offers both public and private (mainly catholic) schools and focusses on its own population and foreign students. The difference between public and private schools is their teaching language. Public schools mainly use Papiamentu and Dutch, whereas private institutes mostly use English and Dutch. (Ministry of General Affairs, 2013; EP-Nuffic, 2011). The secondary education of Curacao is divided into the forms “special basisonderwijs (SBO)”, “hoger algemeen voortgezet onderwijs (HAVO)” and “voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs (VWO)”. All three allow students to access higher education - called the tertiary education sector – by giving out the “hoger beroepsonderwijs (HBO)” diploma (Rijksbegroting, 2010).

According to Goede (2008), in 2007 Curacao was already aware of development opportunities in the educational sector. The Ministry of Education, Sciences, Culture and Sport invested in curricula, developed global partnerships, improved the infrastructure

facilities and fostered the dialogue with the private sector to put the opportunity of education as a means to potential growth into practice.

Figure 3.1 describes the structure of the current system including the level of education and the duration of the education stages, indicated by the grey numbers in the boxes.

Figure 3.1.: The current structure of the educational system of Curacao (Source: EP-Nuffic, 2011)

Furthermore, the Ministry established two foundations (the foundation for innovation in education and the Feffik foundation), which focus on education and they created the collective school administration, which controls the seven different school boards in Curacao. Even though some actions have been taken, according to Goede et al. (2011), around 450 students leave the country annually to study abroad and only 30% return to the island, which leads to a high amount of creative loss called brain drain. Moreover, there is a high rate of dropouts in the secondary education, nearly 40% leave without obtaining a diploma (Schotborgh-van de Ven & van Velzen, 2013). The mentioned positive developments in the last couple of years are endangered due to the opinion of the current minister of education, finding the current regulations education too strict for students on the island. She would like to make it easier by untying the country´s education requirements from the requirements in the Netherlands. This would depreciate the education on the island and it would make it much more complicated to study abroad and to become an education hub (“Students and parents”, 2015)

3.3.1. Higher education and research institutes in Curacao

Curacao has several universities, medical education institutes and research institutes, which build a basis for a potentially bigger role in the worldwide education system. The following section will give a short overview of these facilities.

3.3.1.1. The University of Curacao (UoC)

The University of Curacao (former University of the Netherland Antilles) was founded in 1979 (Goede et al., 2011, UOC, 2015) and has five faculties offering higher professional and academic education. Its five faculties, (1) the Faculty of Law, (2) the Faculty of Engineering, (3) the Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, (4) the Faculty of General Arts and (5) the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences are accredited by the “Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatieorganisatie” (NVAO). The programmes are mainly offered in Dutch, and a limited number in English. The UoC is recognised and subsidised by the government and has 30 nationalities participating in their programmes (Goede et al., 2011). The overall development of number of students on the UoC is upwards from 684 students in 2000, to 2,058 in 2010 (UoC, 2015). In 2013, 2,254 students were enrolled on the UoC, 57 male and 167 female graduated in this year (CBS, 2015a). The UoC is connected to Europe, America and regional universities and aims to attract students and interns to the island. Two examples of cooperation partners in the Netherlands are the Rotterdam University and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, 2015, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, 2015). Furthermore, the UoC has cooperation with local institutes like the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity (CARMABI) and a School of Nurses (Goede et al., 2011). Besides offering courses, the UoC has -in cooperation with the government- developed a special education zone in Curacao named “Knowledge Zone” aiming at creating a knowledge economy in Curacao, with the UoC as centre of this economy (Goede et al., 2011).

3.3.1.2. The University of Dutch Caribbean (UDC)

The University of Dutch Caribbean is another university on the island, offering bachelor degree programmes in higher education. These degrees are held in Dutch and are recognized by the Ministry of Education & Culture of the Netherlands Antilles. The recognition allows students who graduate on the island to study all over the world. Its programmes are (1) Business Economics, (2) Commerce, (3) Higher education in law, (4) Tourism and Recreation, (5) International Business & Management Studies and (6) a 4-year HBO-bachelor’s programme Business Administration (full time and part-time). Contrary to the UoC, the UDC is not subsidised by the government although it is recognised, too. International collaboration universities are the Saxion University in the Netherlands and the American Webster University (UDC, 2015).

3.3.1.3. The Intercontinental University of the Caribbean (ICUC)

The University of the Caribbean was formerly part of the UoC as Curacao institute for Social and Economic studies (CURISES). It is located in Willemstad in the Martinus College. Since 2009, it is independent and created the ICUC as their brand, offering several professional bachelor business programmes and one master programme in cooperation with the Dutch Vrije University in Amsterdam. The ICUC offers their programs in four different faculties. The School of Finance Management & Control, the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, the School of Management & Leadership and the School of Educational Management. In their vision statement, they mention several aspects that have also been found in the literature concerning the quality of an education hub. They want to offer high quality, collaborations with high-ranked universities, attractiveness for professors, accredited programs and interactions between national and international students (ICUC, 2015)

3.3.1.4. Caribbean International University (CIU)

Another university on the island is the CIU, which is accredited by the International Accreditation Organization (IAO) and offers bachelor programs like Media and Technologies, Business Administration and Tourism and Hospitality. Furthermore, they offer two master programs. All courses are held in Spanish.

3.3.1.5. Medical education institutes

Moreover, Curacao has some medical schools, which offer programmes for students wanting to study medicine in other countries afterwards. One of these schools is the St. Martinus University, offering the United States Medical Licensure Examination, needed to enter residency programs in the Unites States. The university is recognized by the Government of the Netherland Antilles and approved by the World Health Organization since 2000. Partnerships programs are offered with universities in the US and one in Canada (St. Martinus, 2015).

Another medical school is the Caribbean Medical University, being one of the top medical schools in the Caribbean linked to Chicago. It offers premedical and medical programs and is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. Its current number of students is at 684. These students are prepared for American hospitals by using a standard US curriculum (CMU, 2015).

The third medical school is the Avalon University School of Medicine (AUSOM) founded in 2003. It offers a US curriculum in preparation for its students residency and medical career in the US or Canada. It is accredited and recognized by the WHO, the Government of Curacao and the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

3.3.1.6. Research Institutes

Another focus when it comes to becoming an education hub and having a strong educational environment are the research institutes. Due to the fact that Curacao is an island, the main research institutes are connected to biology and marine. The first institute is the CARMABI. It was founded in 1955 and is a member of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean. It is a non-profit marine research institute and it supports up to 70 international researchers and graduate students a year. The institute consists of four pillars being scientific research on marine and terrestrial ecological subjects, nature management of marine and terrestrial parks, environmental education and public advice and consultation. It is supported by a department responsible for the needed facilities and technical equipment. The main goals of the institute are linked to sustainability, environmental education and nature research as well as management (CARMABI, 2015).

Another relevant research institution is the Sea Aquarium Curacao, which combines research and tourism by using their own facilities, labs and water systems. Its unique characteristics combined with the high-end technical facilities and open-water system, offer very natural conditions for all organisms in the aquarium. Besides its own research projects like the Deep Reef Observation Program, the Sea Aquarium collaborates with the Smithsonian Institution, a biodiversity research centre, by providing facilities for their research on the marine ecosystem. Another collaboration is given with the University of North Carolina Wilmington, which regularly sends students and professors to conduct research in field coral biology and fish ecology (Sea Aquarium Curacao, 2015).

4. Methodology