WILLEMSTAD – The University of Curaçao has outlined a significant shift in direction in its new Strategic Plan 2025–2029, acknowledging that while it does not intend to abandon research, the institution is currently not organizationally equipped to sustain research at a structural and high-quality level.
In the plan, the university makes a candid assessment: research activities have become overly dependent on individual effort and goodwill rather than institutional capacity. As a result, the institution has concluded that its internal foundation must first be strengthened before research can be sustainably expanded.
This marks a clear departure from earlier ambitions in which education, research, and societal impact were often presented as equal pillars of the university’s mission. According to the new strategy, that balance has proven unrealistic in practice.
Fragmented Responsibilities and Limited Support
The university acknowledges that core processes are not yet functioning with sufficient stability. Responsibilities remain fragmented, and professional support for researchers is limited. Consequently, research is often carried out alongside teaching and administrative duties rather than as a fully supported academic activity.
The absence of a robust organizational structure has direct consequences for the quality and continuity of research. Researchers are not only responsible for academic content, but also for grant applications, financial accountability, and project administration. Without dedicated professional support, research efforts remain tied to personal motivation and individual networks instead of being embedded in a strong institutional framework.
Financial Vulnerability
Funding is another structural weakness. Sustainable and fundamental research requires stable, long-term financing, which is currently lacking. The university remains largely dependent on incidental projects and external assignments.
This makes it difficult to develop a coherent research agenda or to retain researchers over the long term. The strategic plan explicitly states that discussions with the government about structural funding must take place before further research ambitions can be realistically pursued.
Accreditation Pressure
The university also faces increasing pressure related to quality assurance and accreditation. For university-level programs, research is not optional but a fundamental requirement. However, internal evaluations indicate that the organization does not yet meet all the necessary conditions to fully support that mandate.
For this reason, the university has chosen to prioritize governance, quality assurance, and internal cohesion over the coming years. Strengthening these foundations is viewed as essential to embedding research in a sustainable way in the future.
The existing research institute, UCRI, is mentioned in the plan, but with a note of caution. The institute is not yet sufficiently integrated within the faculties and lacks the resources and support required to function as the driving force behind university-wide research. Without stronger institutional anchoring, research risks remaining fragmented and dependent on individual initiatives.
A Candid Reform Agenda
The tone of the strategic plan is notably frank. The University of Curaçao does not present itself as an institution temporarily scaling back research, but rather as one that must first rebuild and professionalize its internal organization.
Only once its “house is in order,” the university argues, can research regain a full and structural place within its academic mission.
The coming years will therefore be critical. If the planned organizational strengthening succeeds, research capacity can gradually be expanded. If it does not, there is a real risk that research will continue to play a marginal role. By openly acknowledging this tension, the University of Curaçao has set a high bar for its own reform agenda.