The URACCAN–New Guinea Campus, was due to a particular interest in being able to provide an educational alternative to secondary school graduates who had to travel to Juigalpa and Managua to study. These circumstances lead to economic problems and the estating of families.
In 1992 the National Council of Universities (UNC) on March 6 resolves to authorize the creation and accreditation of the URACCAN University to begin its teaching work from the date of this resolution and by 1993 the National Assembly grants Legal Personería.Ya by 96 the benefit of the budget of 6% allocated to the Universities is achieved, as well as 1993 the National Council of University; just a year later, the University Campus of New Guinea emerges as an academic extension, and this at the time was an extension of the Bluefields Campus.
The initiative arises with a project presented by URACCAN–Bluefields Campus, and a commission formed by Professor MSc. Claribel Castillo Abeda as coordinator, by the municipal mayor's office Mr. Richard Arteaga, by the People's University of Nicaragua (UPONIC), MSc. Eugenio López Mairena, by MED (now MINED), Licda. Gloria Jarquín Bracamonte and by the parents of families Mr. Donald Ríos Obando.In addition to these personalities appeared another collaborator: MSc. Mibsam Aragon. Initial preparations stateed that: "The mayor's facility already has a land in place for the construction of the facilities of the possible university. Which they have suggested for the future, to call the Wet Tropic High School."
The establishment of URACCAN as an entity
Throughout Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast it was legally given from 1993, as a non-profit civil society, with legal personship granted by the National Assembly, registered under No. 1220 on page 249 to 267, of Volume II, Fifth Book of the Register of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior. As a legal institution he began operations from 1995 with the establishment of the Distance Education Program (PROEDIS) for 120 teachers from both Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, in coordination with the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, UNAN-Managua. According to Erick Alvarez Kr'ger, the URACCAN–New Guinea Campus:Opens its doors on August 11, 1997 through the agreement signed between the URACCAN authorities and the municipal government, benefiting that year 110 first-income students. Between 1997 and 1998, the nucleus was attended by two people, one coordinating and one who did the functions of administrative assistant. Then there were three career coordinators and an English teacher, an administrator and coordinator of the nucleus, the organization being difficult because of the multiple tasks to be fulfilled and low salaries.
For 1997 taking advantage of a closing activity of a PROEDIS meeting in Bluefields, the Licda. Claribel Castle Ebeda181 suggested to Dr. Mirna Cuninngham Rector at the time, the idea that the URACCAN–Bluefields Campus should establish a headquarters in New Guinea. Dr. Mirna Cuninngham's response was that it was very possible, as long as the community and the municipal government were organized and interested in supporting.
For its part, the URACCAN–Bluefields Campus had prepared the PROEDIS with a bachelor's degree in Education Sciences and with the introduction of the Agroforestry Engineering career. Unanimous to this same report, after the visit of the graduate Miguel González and Zarifeth Bolaños, URACCAN became interested in extending to New Guinea contributing with this to the development of professional qualification and attention to the problems of education and local production. The training aspects of sustainable management of natural resources were also included in the natural resource projects.
For its projection, the Community of New Guinea prepared itself by forming a committee, where it grouped parents from the Rubén Darío Institute, who were supposed to be the most interested in supporting the university presence in the municipality. Other characters that showed the most interest in the development, planning and execution of the project to boost the university headquarters were Donald Ríos Obando, Leonel Martínez and Anabel Báez Pinell. They picked up the idea and set out to work. Finally, in February 1997, the pro-university commission was formed, composed of Claribel Castillo Abeda (president); Richard Arteaga Vado (Vice President); Gloria Elena Jarquín Bracamonte (secretary); Donald Ríos Obando (fiscal) and Anabel Báez Pinell (vocal). Once the commission was formed, the initial idea was that URACCAN should be the institution that would cover this area, but the municipal government did not agree very much for the imminent opening of other universities in the region.
The beginnings of the URACCAN register twelve professionals in the area to push the educational project, and in this way principally the teaching-learning work. Hence his first task was to serve high school graduates who, from the statistical data of the time, 75 high schools that did not have the possibility of obtaining a professional degree. The university therefore had its first enrolment with a total of 41 students in the agroforestry engineering career and 60 in the education sciences career.
As for its projection, it could be said that, from the beginning, URACCAN established its policies, mission and institutional vision according to the characteristics of the Caribbean Coast Region. It was no less to think of it being described as a higher education ministry created to contribute to the strengthening of the Autonomy process on Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, through the training and professionalization of human resources, providing them with the necessary knowledge to conserve and leverage in a rational and sustained way natural resources. And as a vision, URACCAN defines themselves as an intercultural university ingest of the indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the Caribbean Coast, which contributes to strengthening autonomy through the accompaniment of processes of self-management, multi-ethnic unity and integral training./span>
In 2006 the most demanded career corresponds to Business Administration, with 44 graduates (as), followed by Agroforestal with 34 students; History with 33; Biology with 15 students, followed by Accounting with 19 students. Zootechnics with 16 students; Spanish with 4 students, followed by Professor of Middle Education (PEM) of Spanish with 27; then there is the PEM Mathematics with 16 students and finally the Zootechnics career with 16 graduates. All of these make a total of 224 graduates.
On the magnitude and scope of URACCAN in New Guinea, the testimony of Mr. Denis Obando stresses that:
I can safely say that URACCAN University has contributed to the development of the municipality, giving us professionals capable of working efficiently in the field of work and giving positive answers to the needs of institutional work. URACCAN is a university of great prestige; which is why he trains good professionals with moral values and professional ethics. Our mayoral facilities have professionals from this university and have demonstrated their capabilities they bring; 70 or 80% of the workers are professionals graduated from this university in the particular case of the municipality professionally graduated from the different modalities of the URACCAN University are located in key places such as in the planning aspects, in the investment aspects, in the financial aspects. We can see that much of the graduates of URACCAN University have opportunities and are located or claimed in key positions of the municipality. In this sense, you could say that it is invaluable because of the magnitude of URACCAN's participation and contribution to the training of professionals of people native to New Guinea. (Interview conducted by Daysi Ríos Ponce and María Dolores Obando to Denis Obando Marín in the municipal mayor's office of New Guinea, on November 7, 2006).