• Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, in his traditional statement to the University Community, asked everyone to give support to the new 3,900 students that entered Universidad de Santiago this year. Our institution has a 166-year history in training professionals and contributing to the development of the country and the world.

Dr Zolezzi stressed that the beginning of this academic year has a very special meaning, because a large number of our new students have benefited from tuition-free higher education.

He said that this goal had been yearned for years and has been achieved after “a long and hard road travelled”. 

He also mentioned the importance of the Chilean education reform as a milestone for the country.

The statement

Besides greeting the university community at the beginning of this academic year, he invited the authorities, academics, professionals and administrative staff “to make the new 3,900 students feel welcomed in these classrooms for they entrusted their professional and personal development to us. With big efforts, they have entered higher education and they have chosen our university for its tradition, quality and prestige. Our mission is to show them that they made the right decision.”

“This academic year has a special meaning to me and to everyone in this institution, as a significant number of these students have benefited from tuition-free education. It is the beginning of a goal that had been yearned for years and has been achieved after a long and hard hard road travelled,” he said. 

He asked senior students to support new students by helping them and answering to their questions, so that this experience turns a happy chapter of their life.

“Undoubtedly, this will be a fundamental year for the education reform. We expect it to be ready and implemented this year and we hope it becomes a real tool that contributes to people’s dignity. It should provide free and quality education for all talented youngsters as a right guaranteed by the Chilean State,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• resident Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the highest authority of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, made official the agreements with two of the most renowned higher education centers in Europe and Latin America. This will allow the exchange of experiences, joint research and student and academic exchange. 
• These cultural, academic and scientific collaboration agreements add up to previous agreements that President Zolezzi has signed with other universities in different continents. This confirms the important position of Universidad de Santiago in the international context, showing the strength of its work as a state and public university.
• On this occasion, President Zolezzi was accompanied by academic authorities from different faculties, like Administration and Economics, Engineering, Chemistry and Biology and the Technological Faculty.

On July 27^th, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago- accompanied by authorities from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology- and Dr Carlos Alvarado Cerezo, President of Universidad de San carlos de Guatemala (USAC), signed a cultural, academic and scientific collaboration agreement, which main goal is to strengthen the relation between the two institutions, in accordance with the project of state, inclusive and pluralistic education that they both share.

A week before, on July 20^th, Dr Zolezzi signed a cooperation agreement with the University of London, confirming the strong conviction of President Zolezzi that building links with worldwide renowned institutions is a must.

Several university authorities attended the meeting, like Jorge Friedmann, Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Economics (FAE); Orlando Balboa, Head of the Department of Economics; Aurelio Butelmann, Head of the Department of Administration, and Arturo Cerda, Head of the Department of Accounting and Auditing, among others.

The agreement

Universidad de Santiago and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala signed a joint cooperation framework agreement in order to share experiences, methodologies and initiatives in the areas of teaching, research and cultural development. In this context, joint activities in these areas are expected to significantly contribute to both institutions.

Local authorities recognized the importance of the agreement. According to the Guatemalan government, this initiative “Will further strengthen the already stable friendship and cooperation links between Guatemala and Chile. It marks a new starting point, with different plans and programs for academic cooperation that will be very useful to students and, particularly, to teachers who seek to improve the development of their cognitive skills to better respond to the new demands of the Guatemalan society.”

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala is the oldest and the most traditional university in that country. It is a unique public institution at the forefront of the development of education and cultural policies.

Its guidelines are common to the ones of Universidad de Santiago, as “It includes a ‘democratic culture’ with a multicultural and intercultural view, related and committed to the environmental, humanist, social and scientific development, with an effective, dynamic and updated management system and with optimally used resources to reach its goals and objectives. It trains professionals with ethical values and academic excellence.”

In search of excellence

The agreement signed by President Zolezzi in Guatemala City is part of the goal set by the university authorities in order to consolidate the institutional growth at a national and international level. The idea is to search for academic initiatives that enrich students’ training and promote additional values which are important in the labor world, such as innovation, adaptability and team work.

This initiative is only one of the significant steps taken in this regard by our Corporation lately. In June, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi visited several community colleges in California, USA; he signed a memorandum of agreement with Luis Lorvão, Portugal Ambassador to Chile, for the creation of the Portuguese Language Center in the Faculty of Humanities of Universidad de Santiago, and he signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, among other activities.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The delegation, led by the Head of the Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Francisco Martínez Concha, sought to learn from experiences in situ to implement and operate the 15 state Technical Training Centres that the Government is promoting in the context of the Education Reform.
• The agenda included visits to Santa Monica College, Los Angeles Trade- Technical College and Berkeley City College, among others, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, USA.
• According to President Zolezzi, learning about the experiences of these centres has been very interesting, especially because Universidad de Santiago will have the responsibility of implementing one of these state centres.

In order to collect information and experiences regarding the operation of some of the most renowned technical education institutions in USA, a delegation led by the Head of the Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Francisco Martínez Concha, and formed by the President of Universidad de Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid, among others, visited a series of community colleges in California, USA, last week.

The program was directly managed by the Department of State of USA to support the Government of Chile in its initiative of implementing 15 technical training centres (CFT, in Spanish) associated to state universities- Universidad de Santiago de Chile will be responsible for one of them- in each region of our country. The program offered a wide and balanced variety of approaches to how this matter is included as a public policy in USA.

The Chilean delegation was also formed by Juan Oyarzo, President of Universidad de Magallanes; Álvaro Rojas, President of Universidad de Talca; and Marcela Arellano, Executive Secretary of the Vocational-Technical Division of the Ministry of Education. Last week, they visited Los Angeles Trade-Technical College; Santa Monica College; West Los Angeles College; Skyline College; Berkeley City College and the College of San Mateo, among other institutions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.

According to President Zolezzi, the experience was very valuable. “They invited us both to contribute from the situation in Chile and to learn about these “two-year colleges”, as they say, that area very similar to the idea of CFTs that the Chilean State will create. From this point of view, this is very relevant to what we are doing as University,” he said in a telephone interview from San Francisco, California.

The value of vocational-technical education

President Zolezzi said that, from his point of view, it was very interesting to learn of the experiences in areas like inclusion, teacher recruiting and the level of free education they have there.

He also found interesting the fact that “they serve a wide age range, including elderly people who want to pursue a specialization in two years and change their activity, or learn a trade.” “Here (in USA), I see that technical professions are more respected and more valued,” he added.

He highlighted that during the first part of the busy schedule that included the visit to almost 10 centres in 5 days, he saw community colleges that specialize in the transition of students to university programs, where they study two more years and get a first degree. Other centres are more focused on the working world

The Chilean delegation examined professional standards and qualifications, including skills certification and approaches that link education to the requirements of the country; best practices; curriculum flexibility; methodologies, and the linkage between the educational sector and the private sector, among other matters.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The President of Universidad de Santiago, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, together with the South Korean ambassador, Ji-eun Yu, launched the first Korean studies program in Chile, with the purpose of promoting academic reflection and foster research related to that country, which is the third world power, with a population of 50.2 million people and a GDP of 1.305 billion dollars. 
• President Zolezzi said that this initiative “will have an extraordinary impact on the policies of cooperation and development of our universities,” particularly because it aims to strengthen our links with the Republic of Korea, “a country that, for the world and for Universidad de Santiago, embodies a paradigmatic example of productive change, scientific creation, development-based innovation and a real miracle of educational progress.”
• For his part, ambassador Ji-eun Yu described the program as “a very important milestone”, because although “trade relationships between the two countries are very good, we need to make more efforts in cultural and academic fields, to promote understanding between the two nations.”

 
In a solemn ceremony held on December 10th at the Salón de Honor of our University, the first Chilean-Korean Study Program in our country was launched. 

The activity was headed by the President of Universidad de Santiago, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, who welcomed the ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Ji-eun Yu, the University authorities, and representatives of the Korean community in our country.

The funding for the Chilean-Korean Study Center Program: for cross-country future integration based on deeper understanding in terms of Politics, Economics and Society was awarded to Universidad de Santiago thanks to the participation of César Ross, researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IDEA, in Spanish), in the international contest “Overseas Korean Studies Incubation 2014” that was organized by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea. 

The project was sponsored by the Vice Presidency of Research, Development and Innovation and is led by Dr. Ross, whose research work has been oriented to different development areas of the Asian countries and their contributions. 

During his speech, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi referred to the importance of strengthening links with the South Korean nation, highlighting that it was “as a poor country that was able to become rich” and gain international recognition thanks to its ability to promote scientific and technological development. For this reason, this initiative “will have and an extraordinary impact on the policies of cooperation and development of our universities,” he said.

“With this Korean Studies Program- that will be part of IDEA- we are reinforcing our links with Korea, a country that for the world and for Universidad de Santiago, embodies a paradigmatic example of productive change, scientific creation, development-based innovation and a real miracle of educational progress, with a strong education system that has been key to that development,” President Zolezzi said.

Regarding the goals set by the University, he said he was pleased to “celebrate this partnership that will strengthen the cultural links between both republics”, a tangible step forward to the internationalization of our University, that seeks to go further in the international academic work.

Ji-eun Yu said that “as ambassador, I feel deeply gratified for witnessing the progress of the Korean studies in Chile.” He valued the initiative and described it as a “very important milestone”. Although “trade relationships between the two countries are very good, we need to make more efforts in cultural and academic fields, to promote understanding between the two nations,” he said.

For the diplomat, the cooperation between the two nations offers big opportunities due to their location on the Pacific Rim. The fact of being close “allows many people to have a broader view with regards to my country. Establishing a program like this, a program about Korea in Chile, will contribute to promote a better academic understanding that will bring our countries closer together.”

For his part, Dr. César Ross, director of the Program, said that “the Chilean-Korean Study Center Program will promote mutual understanding between academics, students and politicians of both countries, to think, reflect and study.”

Also, the initiative focus on promoting the academic interest in Korean studies by introducing a historical perspective to the new generation of Chilean students and professors. It has the purpose of studying the North-east Asian security issues from a Korean point of view, too. The idea is to study the effects of a reunification process of the Korean peninsula and the relation between Asia and Latin America, and to promote a better understanding of the successful role played by the Korean government in developing high technology and exports system,” which are key areas for universities focused on Engineering, like ours,” Dr. Ross said.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The president of Universidad de Santiago, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, signed the “Declaration of Santiago” (Declaración de Santiago, in Spanish), a landmark after three days of discussions and debates on the role of state universities. The “Latin American State Universities Conference” gathered together presidents and representatives of the main universities of the Region.
• “We want universities of high quality and excellence that get involved with society and with the projects related to the problems of the country. We want state universities to be committed to democracy and pluralism,” Dr. Zolezzi stressed.
• The document signed recognizes the contribution of non-profit private universities, but it explicitly questions “the sudden increase in the past few decades of private institutions with evident commercial interests that have directly or indirectly received government support for their expansion.”

The debate over public education in our country is in full swing and, in the following months, the Government is expected to present several initiatives to reform higher education. In this context, and for its 172^nd anniversary, Universidad de Chile invited presidents and representatives of universities of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile, among others, to the Latin American State Universities Conference for the purpose of discussing on the strategic role of these institutions.

The conference started on November 19^th and finished on November 21^st with the submission of the document “Las Universidades Estatales deben ser el eje de las políticas de educación superior en América Latina” (State Universities should be at the core of higher education policies in Latin America, in Spanish) - the “Declaration of Santiago”- in which the universities involved agreed on several issues that are essential to these institutions and demarcate their work in the public sphere.

The document was signed by 15 presidents and representatives of universities of all over the continent and it established, among other points, that “higher education is a social right, a human and individual right”; therefore, “the governments’ support for scientific research, technological innovation, artistic creation and the development of humanities is essential to build increasingly prosperous, democratic and fair societies

According to the President of Universidad de Santiago, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the conference was held in a moment “close to a profound and philosophic debate, most probably in March, over the new regulations of the higher education reform. So we consider that it is very important for us to be present on behalf of Universidad de Santiago. It was also important to leave a mark with regard to what we understand as public universities in Latin America in our times.”

One of the points in the Declaration that President Zolezzi valued the most is the one that establishes that governments should “increase the resources for funding public higher education and prevent the funding systems from having incentives that may lead to inequity in the access (to higher education), in a sustained path to free education.”

“We want universities of high quality and excellence that get involved with society and with the projects related to the problems of the country. We want state universities to be committed to democracy and pluralism,” Dr. Zolezzi said. He valued the continental agreement because “we were able to standardize criteria by recognizing that public education has a sole origin: the State bodies. And, what is most important: the idea of free education was validated at a regional level.” 

Ennio Vivaldi, President of Universidad de Chile, the university that hosted the conference, also highlighted the activity, saying that through this, the continent commits to “the idea that the education provided by state universities should be free.”

He also acknowledged that, just like the document says, “the higher education system is diverse and we value the interaction with traditional private universities that contribute to the university system. But in turn, we are concerned that in this context, there are institutions that were conceived as business, something that is very sad sometimes, because they take money from poor people and provide in exchange a questionable no-quality product. We were very explicit regarding this point,” Vivaldi said.

In fact, the document states that “the sudden increase in the past few decades of private institutions with evident commercial interests or social biases undermines the idea of higher education as a social right.” Then, it states that “in some countries, these private institutions with commercial interests have directly or indirectly received government support for their expansion.” 

International views

One of the foreign representatives, María Andrea Marín of Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, said that although there are other opportunities in which Latin American universities gather together, like the Montevideo Group Association of Universities (AUGM, in Spanish) that groups together the Mercosur bloc universities, “these meetings organized with an specific purpose focus on an specific discussion: to establish the reason, the purpose and the extent to which we commit to as state universities. To establish what we intend as institutions and how we can contribute to strengthening the democratic states and the social development of our communities.”

Fernando Sempértegui, President of Universidad Central of Ecuador valued the fact that they “claimed the state’s constant attention to the needs of these universities, so that they can fulfil their mission: high quality scientific research work and professional training.”

He also highlighted the importance of state universities as “the leading agent in the approach to building equity.”

Education Reform

During the activity, Dr. Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago and Executive Vice President of the Council of Presidents of Chilean Universities, also spoke about current events and commented on the pressures that the Christian Democratic Party allegedly put on the government to slow down the debate on the Education Reform, with the consequent delay in the deadlines.

“I would expect this time could be recovered in terms of a larger and better conversation, because up to know, there has not been a dialogue between the government and the universities, in general, or a dialogue with the state universities, in particular, about the development of this reform,” President Zolezzi said.  He added that he does not have any information regarding to what the government intends to implement or propose “in March, April or at any other time. I do not believe they have not done anything. I can scarcely imagine that in 8 months they have not made any progress.”

President Zolezzi finally said that he believes that the government should show itself “more convinced and that the president should be more present, to proceed with this.  Although President (Bachelet) has expressed her intention to do so, we expect the implementation of these policies become real, because in terms of budget, we did not see it.” 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Engineer Eduardo Morales Santos (1936-2014) leaves his imprint as a great humanist and advocate of public education. With his characteristic vision of future, he promoted the opening of programs like Medicine, Journalism, Psychology and Architecture, as well as several projects to transform Universidad de Santiago in an institution of excellence.
• On behalf of the University community, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi expressed his “deep regret” at the loss of “someone who really loved this institution” and his gratitude for “the big contribution that Eduardo Morales made to our University.”

Eduardo Morales Santos (1936-2014) was much more than an electrical civil engineer, former professor and superior counselor to Universidad Católica, Universidad Técnica del Estado and Universidad de Santiago. And he was much more than the President of Universidad de Santiago for two consecutive terms. He was a great humanist.

He became part of the institutional history as he was the first University President elected after the return of democracy, when he took over 24 years ago, on August 17th, 1990.

Since he arrived in the Presidency of Universidad de Santiago, he set as an immediate goal the transformation of this university in a complex and complete institution. Just like he said at that time, the University had to be transformed in a multidimensional institution.

He was studious, committed and had a vision of future; he planned a world-class university and to achieve this goal it was necessary to open it and make it more complex. Therefore, during the first two years of his first term, he presented a variety of possibilities to allow Universidad de Santiago to develop in fundamental fields like engineering (without leaving aside the institution’s historical tradition); education; medical sciences; sciences in all their complexity; and social sciences and humanities.
The challenge was huge, but Eduardo Morales accepted it. After his first three years in the Presidency, new programs and institutes were opened and the organizational structure was modified. Between 1992 and 1993 the Center of Research in Creativity and Higher Education (CICES); the Institute for Advanced Studies (IDEA); the Faculty of Medical Sciences with its Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Obstetrics and Puericulture; the School of Journalism; the School of Architecture; the School of Psychology; the Technological Faculty; the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology; the Center for Bioethics and Public Health program; the Comenius program and the Sello Editorial university press, started their activities,
 
With a new organizational structure, the University took charge of the country’s demands and offered 16 new programs. In his own words, it was “a big step”, especially at producing new knowledge for areas important to the country, such as humanities, social sciences and medical sciences. Indeed, he said that he had recently presented a project to open the law school in our University, an idea that was eventually rejected by the Academic Council and the Board of Directors.

He did not forget graduate programs and during his two terms seven master’s programs were opened: Master´s in Telecommunications; Master´s in Informatics Engineering; Master´s in Industrial Engineering; Master´s in Tax Management and Planning; Master´s in Financial Economics; Master´s in Public Management; and Master’s in Administration and Human Resources Management. Also the following doctoral programs were started: PhD in Engineering Sciences with a Major in Automation; PhD in Engineering Sciences with a Major in Materials Science; PhD in American Studies, and the PhD in Sciences with a Major in Physics.

“Today, Universidad de Santiago stands like a more complex and complete institution with the creation of the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Schools of Journalism, Psychology and Architecture. We are a Class- A university, according to the American ranking, which are the institutions with the highest level of development,” he said then, reassuring the work he had done since 1990 for two terms.

Reconciliation

Eduardo Morales was elected the University President at a very difficult political moment. He was the first University President in democracy and the first in taking a decisive step at establishing the UTE-Usach University Reconciliation Commission, which final report stated that, between September 1973 and March 1990, there were 88 people executed or detained/disappeared for political reasons.

This process concluded with a big act of redress on December 04th, 1991, when the families of the dictatorship victims of our campus received the certificates that recognized their relatives as students of our University.

First steps for inclusion

Inclusion, the imprint of Universidad de Santiago, started during Eduardo Morales’ Presidency. In 1992 the University opened its doors to talented students from public municipality-administered schools, giving a 5% of the Academic Aptitude Test (PAA, in Spanish) score to those students who were among the best of their class.

The University continued with this system for over 10 years until the Cruch (Council of University Presidents of Chile) forced it to finish it. Today, a similar mechanism has become a public policy through the class ranking; more than two decades ago it was just a quixotic act.

Eduardo Morales dared to dream big and said that we had to think of the University that we wanted in the long term. “By 2050, Universidad de Santiago should be among the 100 best universities of the world,” he said in 2012.

That was him: He imagined and dreamt the University as a big one, because he trusted the talents, energy and commitment of everyone who is part of this institution.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

Watch the interview that Eduardo Morales gave to the Department of Communications for the 20th anniversary of the Faculty of Medical Sciences

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• Richard Yelland, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD, met with different members of Universidad de Santiago’s community, authorities and President Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid.

​

Richard Yelland, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), met with different members of Universidad de Santiago’s community, authorities and President Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss different matters in the context of the study “Reviews of National Policies for Education” that seeks to identify changes in the Chilean education system since 2004. The study was requested by the Chilean Ministry of Education (Mineduc, in Spanish).

“I am glad that he came to Universidad de Santiago de Chile, so that he was able to learn about the reality in the past few years, about what is happening now and what we expect to happen in the future,” President Zolezzi said.

For his part, Richard Yelland said that Universidad de Santiago “is a university with a historical commitment to the country, something that you can see in its students, professors, the President and his team. And it is good to see that. What I have seen here (at the university) has contributed to complement the information gathered at the Ministry of Education, the Congress and other institutions.”

Changes in public policies

After the meeting, President Zolezzi said that, on several occasions, university authorities are ignored and he regretted that every time the government or the ministers change, public policies change too.

“Priorities are defined depending on each government. We have tried to define them, but there are not guidelines at a national level. As this is a State university, the State should be the one to define the problems that we need to solve, but we have never received such information,” President Zolezzi said.

The country requires a vision

Richard Yelland expressed his agreement on these ideas and he said: “Before strengthening the State higher education system, the country needs to have a vision, a strategy for higher education and innovation and determine how this will contribute to the development of the Chilean society and economy.”

He insisted on the need to develop country guidelines first, and then to determine the role of private and State universities. “This means to make long-term decisions, what is difficult for there are ideological divisions; but there are people who are willing to do it. So it is important to try to get out of such a politicized education,” he said.

He finally said that education changes slowly and that it involves different parties, and that legislating is only a part of the process.

Richard Yelland gathered together with professors and students at Universidad de Santiago in order to learn their points of view. He also met with professor Saúl Contreras, Head of the Department of Education of the university.

The study “Reviews of National Policies for Education” seeks to identify the main changes in the Chilean education system between 2004 and 2014 and to describe its current state. 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, in his traditional statement to the University Community, asked everyone to give support to the new 3,900 students that entered Universidad de Santiago this year. Our institution has a 166-year history in training professionals and contributing to the development of the country and the world.

Dr Zolezzi stressed that the beginning of this academic year has a very special meaning, because a large number of our new students have benefited from tuition-free higher education.

He said that this goal had been yearned for years and has been achieved after “a long and hard road travelled”. 

He also mentioned the importance of the Chilean education reform as a milestone for the country.

The statement

Besides greeting the university community at the beginning of this academic year, he invited the authorities, academics, professionals and administrative staff “to make the new 3,900 students feel welcomed in these classrooms for they entrusted their professional and personal development to us. With big efforts, they have entered higher education and they have chosen our university for its tradition, quality and prestige. Our mission is to show them that they made the right decision.”

“This academic year has a special meaning to me and to everyone in this institution, as a significant number of these students have benefited from tuition-free education. It is the beginning of a goal that had been yearned for years and has been achieved after a long and hard hard road travelled,” he said. 

He asked senior students to support new students by helping them and answering to their questions, so that this experience turns a happy chapter of their life.

“Undoubtedly, this will be a fundamental year for the education reform. We expect it to be ready and implemented this year and we hope it becomes a real tool that contributes to people’s dignity. It should provide free and quality education for all talented youngsters as a right guaranteed by the Chilean State,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• resident Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the highest authority of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, made official the agreements with two of the most renowned higher education centers in Europe and Latin America. This will allow the exchange of experiences, joint research and student and academic exchange. 
• These cultural, academic and scientific collaboration agreements add up to previous agreements that President Zolezzi has signed with other universities in different continents. This confirms the important position of Universidad de Santiago in the international context, showing the strength of its work as a state and public university.
• On this occasion, President Zolezzi was accompanied by academic authorities from different faculties, like Administration and Economics, Engineering, Chemistry and Biology and the Technological Faculty.

On July 27^th, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago- accompanied by authorities from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology- and Dr Carlos Alvarado Cerezo, President of Universidad de San carlos de Guatemala (USAC), signed a cultural, academic and scientific collaboration agreement, which main goal is to strengthen the relation between the two institutions, in accordance with the project of state, inclusive and pluralistic education that they both share.

A week before, on July 20^th, Dr Zolezzi signed a cooperation agreement with the University of London, confirming the strong conviction of President Zolezzi that building links with worldwide renowned institutions is a must.

Several university authorities attended the meeting, like Jorge Friedmann, Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Economics (FAE); Orlando Balboa, Head of the Department of Economics; Aurelio Butelmann, Head of the Department of Administration, and Arturo Cerda, Head of the Department of Accounting and Auditing, among others.

The agreement

Universidad de Santiago and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala signed a joint cooperation framework agreement in order to share experiences, methodologies and initiatives in the areas of teaching, research and cultural development. In this context, joint activities in these areas are expected to significantly contribute to both institutions.

Local authorities recognized the importance of the agreement. According to the Guatemalan government, this initiative “Will further strengthen the already stable friendship and cooperation links between Guatemala and Chile. It marks a new starting point, with different plans and programs for academic cooperation that will be very useful to students and, particularly, to teachers who seek to improve the development of their cognitive skills to better respond to the new demands of the Guatemalan society.”

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala is the oldest and the most traditional university in that country. It is a unique public institution at the forefront of the development of education and cultural policies.

Its guidelines are common to the ones of Universidad de Santiago, as “It includes a ‘democratic culture’ with a multicultural and intercultural view, related and committed to the environmental, humanist, social and scientific development, with an effective, dynamic and updated management system and with optimally used resources to reach its goals and objectives. It trains professionals with ethical values and academic excellence.”

In search of excellence

The agreement signed by President Zolezzi in Guatemala City is part of the goal set by the university authorities in order to consolidate the institutional growth at a national and international level. The idea is to search for academic initiatives that enrich students’ training and promote additional values which are important in the labor world, such as innovation, adaptability and team work.

This initiative is only one of the significant steps taken in this regard by our Corporation lately. In June, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi visited several community colleges in California, USA; he signed a memorandum of agreement with Luis Lorvão, Portugal Ambassador to Chile, for the creation of the Portuguese Language Center in the Faculty of Humanities of Universidad de Santiago, and he signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, among other activities.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The delegation, led by the Head of the Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Francisco Martínez Concha, sought to learn from experiences in situ to implement and operate the 15 state Technical Training Centres that the Government is promoting in the context of the Education Reform.
• The agenda included visits to Santa Monica College, Los Angeles Trade- Technical College and Berkeley City College, among others, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, USA.
• According to President Zolezzi, learning about the experiences of these centres has been very interesting, especially because Universidad de Santiago will have the responsibility of implementing one of these state centres.

In order to collect information and experiences regarding the operation of some of the most renowned technical education institutions in USA, a delegation led by the Head of the Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Francisco Martínez Concha, and formed by the President of Universidad de Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid, among others, visited a series of community colleges in California, USA, last week.

The program was directly managed by the Department of State of USA to support the Government of Chile in its initiative of implementing 15 technical training centres (CFT, in Spanish) associated to state universities- Universidad de Santiago de Chile will be responsible for one of them- in each region of our country. The program offered a wide and balanced variety of approaches to how this matter is included as a public policy in USA.

The Chilean delegation was also formed by Juan Oyarzo, President of Universidad de Magallanes; Álvaro Rojas, President of Universidad de Talca; and Marcela Arellano, Executive Secretary of the Vocational-Technical Division of the Ministry of Education. Last week, they visited Los Angeles Trade-Technical College; Santa Monica College; West Los Angeles College; Skyline College; Berkeley City College and the College of San Mateo, among other institutions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.

According to President Zolezzi, the experience was very valuable. “They invited us both to contribute from the situation in Chile and to learn about these “two-year colleges”, as they say, that area very similar to the idea of CFTs that the Chilean State will create. From this point of view, this is very relevant to what we are doing as University,” he said in a telephone interview from San Francisco, California.

The value of vocational-technical education

President Zolezzi said that, from his point of view, it was very interesting to learn of the experiences in areas like inclusion, teacher recruiting and the level of free education they have there.

He also found interesting the fact that “they serve a wide age range, including elderly people who want to pursue a specialization in two years and change their activity, or learn a trade.” “Here (in USA), I see that technical professions are more respected and more valued,” he added.

He highlighted that during the first part of the busy schedule that included the visit to almost 10 centres in 5 days, he saw community colleges that specialize in the transition of students to university programs, where they study two more years and get a first degree. Other centres are more focused on the working world

The Chilean delegation examined professional standards and qualifications, including skills certification and approaches that link education to the requirements of the country; best practices; curriculum flexibility; methodologies, and the linkage between the educational sector and the private sector, among other matters.

Translated by Marcela Contreras