The Universidad de La Frontera is seeking a permanent dialogue. In this context, the foreign students who are currently studying at the university were invited to an informative meeting with posterior conversations about the current situation in Chile.

The purpose of this meeting, organized by the International Affairs Office and the Office for National and International Student Mobility of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), was to understand the political and social episodes that have taken place in Chile during the last decades and that have originated the current public discontent and demonstrations all over the country.

The psychologist Diego Espinoza and Claudia Mercado, a student of the doctorate in social sciences, were in charge of the presentation called “Social outburst in Chile” and contextualized the aspects with which the public discontent started, specifically the demands that involve the pension system, low and unjust salaries, access to health care services and coverage, the right of quality education, access to housing, the increase in basic services costs and the general rise in the costs of living, amongst others.

The main purpose of this activity was, according to the speakers, to help the foreign students to understand what is happening and why this social explosion is taking place. “This is not just discontent as a phenomenon of crime and violence. It has a background that lies 40 years in the past, with processes that originated in the dictatorship,” the psychologist Diego Espinoza explained.

It is a difficult task to condense the whole background information in less than two hours, but according to Claudia Mercado, the social scientist and student of the doctorate in social sciences, “it is very important to ask ourselves and share our thoughts about what Chile is at this moment, what country we are living in and what this public discontent is about. And in this context, we must consider antecedents that allow others to understand that we are facing an institutionalism and a state that was created at a specific moment in history and that is required to undergo structural changes.”

At the end of the presentation, the students from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, Spain, the USA, France, the Netherlands, Mexico and Poland who joined the UFRO this year, were able to ask questions and to express their concerns.

According to Consuelo Sanchez, who is in charge of the National and International Student Mobility Office of the Universidad de La Frontera, the institutional purpose these days has been to create the required spaces of dialogue and reflection for being able to maintain an appropriate climate. “We wanted to provide a space of dialogue, to give them the opportunity to get to know the background of what is happening and to convey a sense of calm; but also to get to know their personal vision, and their doubts and questions regarding their academic student exchange.”

Written by: UFRO Communications Office
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