Student Participation in the Government of the University of Costa Rica

Abstract

The University of Costa Rica is the only institution of higher learning in a country of one million and a half inhabitants. During the academic year 1969, 12,000 students were enrolled, making it the largest university in Central America. The first university which existed in Costa Rica, the University of Santo Toma's, was established in 1843 but was closed in 1888, with the exception of the Law School, which continued to accept students. Additional schools were established at the beginning of the century and the University of Costa Rica was re-established in 1941. Prior to the re-establishment of the University there was no student participation in the government bodies of the existing professional schools. Law and Pharmacy were governed by the Boards of Directors of the Lawyers' and Pharmacists' Associations; Fine Arts was a department of the Ministry of Education and the School of Agriculture was a branch of the Ministry of Public Works. Once re-established, however, the University of Costa Rica had student representatives in all the governing bodies of the institution. The blueprint for the organization of the university was prepared by a Chilean educational mission which proposed that two students should be members of the University Council and three should represent the student body of each of the Schools in the University Assembly.' Justifying the presence of the students on the Council, Luis Galdames, the head of the Chilean mission, wrote in 1935: