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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

With 140 campuses nationwide, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) highly touted Benito Juárez García Bienestar Universities (UBBJ) have not had the public response that the president would have liked.

In fact, enrollment is so low that some of the Bienestar universities barely have anyone registered for classes, such as the one in Yahualica, Hidalgo, with 13 students, or the one that operates in Las Margaritas, Chiapas, which has 20 students.

Of a total of 140 Bienestar universities nationwide, there are 50 that have less than 100 students, according to data from the institution.

The federal government allocated to these schools  a budget of 98.4 million pesos in 2021, and for 2022 their resources were increased by 102.447 million pesos, to more than 1.89 million.

According to a federal government report, in 2019 there were 39,170 students enrolled in Bienestar university classes, but by the first quarter of 2021, the comparable figure was reduced to 28,887, representing a drop in enrollment of 28.3 percent.

According to a study by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), for the first year of operation of these schools, the aim was to serve a total of 64,000 students, and the six-year goal was to provide classes for 256,000 students.

Each student of the Bienestar universities, that have 36 majors, receives a monthly scholarship of 2,400 pesos, so for this year 808.9 million pesos will be allocated in support.