The universities of Santiago de Cuba will commence the academic year 2026-2027 on September 1st, offering hybrid and distance learning options, with in-person attendance periods subject to the acute fuel and transportation crisis currently affecting the island. This was announced by the Ministry of Higher Education on Friday, in a statement outlining the reorganization of the Cuban university system for the new academic cycle.
According to the ministry, university education will be organized in a decentralized manner from the regions, combining hybrid learning, distance education, and in-person meetings "whenever possible," primarily for students in day courses.
The in-person activities will not be limited to the central campuses of each university. They will also take place in the Municipal University Centers (CUM), the Municipal University Branches (FUM), and in productive or service entities within the territory, which expands the network of teaching points and reduces the need for long-distance travel.
The course by meetings will resume in-person sessions at least once a month, aimed at guiding and assessing learning tasks, while the distance course will maintain its usual format.
The enrollment, re-admission, and reaffirmation processes for continuing students are also being decentralized: they can be managed from each student's place of residence, either in person or online, at both the university and the CUM or FUM of the corresponding province or municipality.
This reorganization did not come out of nowhere. The University of Oriente, the main institution of higher education in Santiago de Cuba, already adopted a blended learning format during the second term of the 2025-2026 academic year, starting on March 2, 2026. That term was divided into two phases: the first, blended, lasted until April 11; the second, with increased in-person attendance, took place from April 20 to June 27.
The University of Havana also shifted to a hybrid model in February 2026 for the same reason: the inability to ensure transportation and electrical supply in the educational facilities. The Superior Institute of Art followed the same path days later.
In March 2026, President Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly acknowledged the situation by stating that "universities must adapt to the energy crisis through hybrid modalities and community reorganization of the teaching process."
The regime also suspended the entrance exams for higher education for the 2026-2027 academic year and replaced them with the cumulative academic average from pre-university. Additionally, it moved up the end of the 2025-2026 school year due to a lack of fuel.
The ministry urged students and teachers to follow the official channels of each university and the CUM and FUM in their area to learn about the local organizational details of the new academic year, indicating that the specific conditions of each province will ultimately determine how much in-person attendance will be feasible.
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