ANEAES warns of 100,000 potentially irregular university degrees in Paraguay

José Fernando Duarte, president of the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (ANEAES), has alerted authorities to more than 100,000 university degrees issued over the last three years from non-accredited programs. Duarte noted that while not all degrees are necessarily fraudulent, there is a high probability that a significant percentage lack proper justification or legal backing.

The investigation includes fields where accreditation is legally mandatory, such as Law, Medicine, and Engineering. A technical report detailing these findings has been submitted to the Comptroller General of the Republic and the Public Ministry to determine the full extent of the irregularities.

Duarte characterized the current higher education governance system as "failed" and called for legislative reforms to Law 4995. He proposed restructuring the sector by transferring inspection and control functions to the Vice Ministry of Education and allowing ANEAES to absorb the evaluative roles currently held by the National Council of Higher Education (CONES).