- The highest authority of Universidad de Santiago de Chile will lead for the following term the Montevideo Group Association of Universities, a network formed by 31 public institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid, President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, is the unanimously elected new president of the Montevideo Group Association of Universities for the May 2016-May 2017 term.
The handover ceremony was held at Universidad de Santiago, with the attendance of diplomatic guests, higher education authorities and representatives of the Council of Rectors of this entity.
Dr Eduardo Rivero, President of Universidad San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca of Bolivia, was unanimously elected vice-president.
This year, this association of state, public, autonomous and self-governing institutions will celebrate 25 years of its foundation.
New challenges
“We need to strengthen higher education with regard to teaching, scientific research, technological innovation, and outreach and engagement, involving universities, research centers, productive sectors, governments and society all together,” Dr Zolezzi said. He also referred to the need for “establishing a policy for relations with other networks.”
Regarding the national context, Dr Zolezzi said: “As state and public universities, we have made efforts so that the country can declare again education as a social right and not as a consumer good. Higher education cannot be determined by the supply and demand criteria that govern the market’s logic.”
A new state and public development hub
Having in mind the challenges faced by the state and public universities of the region and reaffirming their commitment, with a special emphasis upon strengthening the Latin American and Caribbean Higher Education Space, the university presidents of AUGM confirmed a new step to favor inclusion, equity, social cohesion and cultural diversity: the new Escuela Internacional de Postgrados (International School for Graduate Studies).
The Escuela Internacional de Postgrados will be located in Valparaíso, Chile, in a heritage building recently acquired by the AUGM. In its first stage, the school will be focused on promoting education and culture.
Strengthening student and teacher exchange
According to Dr Eduardo Rivero, president of Universidad San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca of Bolivia and current AUGM’s Vicepresident, “it is important to strengthen student and teacher exchange, but not only at an undergraduate level. The Escuela Internacional de Postgrados will allow us to include more teachers and in turn, respond to the needs of our countries.”
“Being part of the Montevideo Group is something important. It is one of the most recognized networks worldwide and it could include other universities. It is important that institutions grow, buy it is even more significant the impact they may have on society,” he said.
It will be a center to promote development, research and innovation that will allow increasing student and teacher exchange among the 30 state universities that are part of this network.
In the past 13 years, the AUGM has enabled the exchange of 5,000 students. Besides its 26 research groups distributed in Academic Committees and Think Tanks that involve different areas of scientific knowledge, the AUGM organizes the Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores (Young Researchers Conference) that have gathered 500 students in the past 5 years.
Translated by Marcela Contreras
