Venezuela has more than 90 institutions of higher education, with 860,000 students in 2002. Higher education remains free under the 1999 Constitution and was receiving 35% of the education budget, even though it accounted for only 11% of the student population. More than 70% of university students come from the wealthiest quantile of the population. To address this problem, instead of improving primary and secondary education, the government established the Bolivarian University system in 2003, which was designed to democratize access to "higher education" by offering heavily politicized study programs to the public with only minimal entrance requirements. Autonomous public universities have had their operational budgets frozen by the state since 2004, and staff salaries have been frozen since 2008 despite an inflation of 20–30% a year.