The Minister of Education, Alejandro Gaviria, has referred in various scenarios to the need to «connect» the Colombian university (in reference to the entire higher education system) with society and the productive sector, since he considers that the country requires feel a greater articulation, dialogue, interaction, contribution and feedback with their higher education. It is difficult to contradict the intention of the minister, not because of his high rank as a public servant and responsible for the educational policy of the country, but because, clearly, what he proposes has a lot of weight, and those of us who pride ourselves on being academics must humbly accept an absolutely rational reasoning , precise and challenging.

And it is challenging because, even starting from the premise that Colombian HEIs are connected with society (they serve almost 2.5 million young people, with hundreds of thousands of graduates and in almost all municipalities), it is clear that while the Nation faces problems such as poverty, intolerance, unemployment and low levels of productivity, among others, higher education has to continue working intensely on its pedagogical actions with the communities, with outreach and social commitment works, as well as raising the parameters of practices and alliances with the productive sector, as primary actions (but not sufficient) to connect with the country.

It is also true, and constitutes a basic premise of the planning and orientation models of public policies, that only a duly structured system will have an impact and consistency in its process of articulation with society, if said system is duly consolidated; that is, connected among all its components because they fully identify with collective and national purposes.

And from there comes the explanation and answer to the question of why the minister considers that the universities (as he generally refers to all the various HEIs) are not connecting properly or sufficiently with the country: Our so-called Colombian higher education system In practice, it does not respond as a system, but rather is a conglomeration of actors and interests that speak in the name of education, but that do not always act in harmony, and therefore their impact (connection) is not the desired one.

As rector and president of ACIET, I must lead a mea culpa and recognize that, from a sectoral perspective, we have navigated our own limitations: To defend our positions, we speak with a few and not with all the rectors, and we manage benefits in a partial and subgroup manner. individual rather than collective. We must say things as they are: We must be a true system to achieve the desired connection.

It is you, Dr. Gaviria, with your ministerial leadership, will, knowledge and capacity for dialogue, whom HEIs and associations welcome to follow guidelines that allow us to integrate. No rector, no association of HEIs, no professional association and not even groups of teachers or students have the capacity to bring together and line up all the actors to work around common purposes. As far as we, HEIs and rectors are concerned, they have our disposition, as well as the human, technical and infrastructure resources needed to advance in this integration process.

For this reason, Mr. Minister, in order to be able to connect properly with the country, but first internally as a system, we require government actions that recognize our efforts, the talent of our institutions, their diversity and autonomy, as well as the commitment of both HEIs public, for providing quality coverage, as well as private ones for doing the same task, but without any support from the State. Private HEIs serve more than one million one hundred thousand students, of which more than 90% correspond to strata 1, 2 and 3 (Spadies 2021-2).

We are here to tell you that you can count on us; that we aspire to “connect” in the best way with the State and its Ministry of Education; that we want to be able to express our needs and expectations, but also our hopes and fears; that we have to find conceptual agreements around autonomy with responsibility, the role of promotion and inspection and surveillance, as well as equitable rules in terms of responsibilities and benefits for all the various actors involved in higher education and the other educational levels; and that we want to sit at the same table with those who, also in the academic setting, see us and see us differently to discover that everyone (public, private, accredited or in the process of accreditation, from the capital or province, face-to-face or virtual, close or not to the government…) we are in this sector for the passion of serving the country through education.

We must turn this historic difficulty into a unique opportunity to show that we are a true system; that together we can reach more Colombians; that alliances and solidarity is not something exceptional but a characteristic of our HEIs; that the Ministry is not an agent of intervention but of coordination; that private HEIs are not an obstacle for the public university but, on the contrary, an ideal complement for educational diversity, coverage and quality; and that thanks to our very diverse nuances, educational inclusion with quality and social vision, they will be able to build and connect higher education with what Colombia deserves and expects.