Higher Education Minister Walter Baluja García said on the state television program “Mesa Redonda” on May 19 that admission to Cuban universities for the 2026-2027 academic year would instead be based on students’ accumulated academic records from pre-university.
More than 32,000 graduating pre-university students will be assigned to over 100 majors, with placements running in three rounds from May 20 to July 2, according to Cuban state wire Latin Press. Over 4,000 places have already been allocated through academic competitions and pre-university colleges, and more than 47,500 additional spots are open for blended-attendance and distance learning programs.
Alongside Baluja García, Education Minister Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto announced that the 2025-2026 school year would close gradually between June 15 and 30 instead of July. Special education programs serving students with disabilities will end their year in May to spare those pupils long commutes. Sports academies under the National Sports Institute (INDER) and arts schools under the Ministry of Culture will also wind up formal instruction early. Graduation ceremonies will be held simply on school grounds or in students’ home neighborhoods.
Trujillo Barreto said the system would concentrate remaining resources on students in transition grades, namely grades 6, 9 and 12. The abrupt changes were carefully weighed to preserve equal access to education, she said.
Students in Cuba work during the night to finish assignments that get delayed by power outages. Photo by AFP |
The measures come amid Cuba’s worst energy crisis in decades. Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy has said the country has “absolutely no fuel” to spare, with blackouts lasting up to 22 hours a day in some provinces, Euronews reported in February.
The strain has rippled across all levels of schooling. Students and teachers have walked long distances to reach class, while many localities have reduced hot-meal services and cut back in-person school days. Universities have moved to online or hybrid models, with staff and students working through frequent power and water cuts at home.
The exam cancellation marks a sharp reversal of the government’s position only weeks earlier. In March, the Higher Education Ministry had confirmed the entrance exams would proceed on June 5 for mathematics, June 9 for Spanish and June 12 for Cuban history, dates that had themselves already been pushed back from the original May schedule, OnCuba News reported. The last time Cuba abandoned the exams was during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Under the now-suspended exam system, university places would have first gone to candidates scoring at least 60/100 in all three subjects, then to qualifying candidates who missed out in the first round, and finally to those who failed one or more subjects. The three-subject format, with each test held on a separate day in May or June, has anchored Cuban university admissions for decades.
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