ACCESS is a platform that seeks to promote and facilitate the academic collaboration between Chile and Sweden and will allow UFRO to establish important international partnerships for advanced research.

After diverse preparations, Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) officially confirmed its entry into the prestigious platform Academic Collaboration Chile Sweden (ACCESS), a network for international collaboration between Chile and Sweden.

ACCESS is a platform that seeks to promote and facilitate the academic collaboration between Chile and Sweden and will allow UFRO to establish important international partnerships for advanced research.

According to Dr. Rodrigo Navia Diez, the Vice-rector for Research and Graduate Studies, UFROs participation in this platform is a milestone and an opportunity for internationalisation and international mobility. “The opportunity to be part of ACCESS is a very important milestone, because this collaborative platform, consisting of eight Swedish universities and eight Chilean universities, allows a series of activities in the fields of student and academic mobility, research and graduate studies, which promote the internationalisation of our university. We hope that this platform will somehow strengthen our research and our work in the fields of graduate studies and internationalisation,” he commented.

The incorporation of UFRO into the platform ACCESS is the result of a cooperative work between the Vice-rectorate for Research and Graduate Studies, the International Affairs Office, and Dr. Iván Velásquez, an academic of UFROs Faculty of Engineering and Science, who initiated the conversations during a recent trip in order to materialise this impulse of development and collaboration.

“The idea is to expand and exchange knowledge between the universities’ researchers and to promote student exchange, visits, internships and graduate studies, as well as to develop joint doctoral courses,” explained Dr. Velazquez.

The ACCESS platform started in 2016, with the Swedish universities Lund University and Uppsala University and the Chilean universities Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Chile, with the aim of facilitating and deepening the academic relations between Chile and Sweden. At that time, the founding members of the platform collectively agreed on the framework and decided to create research seminars in Chile and Sweden.

This semester, 36 mobility students from different countries and universities came to Universidad de La Frontera, 29 to join the undergraduate programs and 7 to join the graduate programs.

The International Affairs Office of Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) organized an orientation week for the new incoming mobility students, with the traditional welcome ceremony, in which the students were able to get to know the numerous programs and offers that will make their stay in the La Araucanía region in Chile a unique experience.

The first orientation meeting, led by Antonia Espinoza Corzo, the head of the Student Mobility Office, consisted of a series of talks on topics of great utility for the incoming students, such as enrolment and subject registration procedures and the presentation of UFROs different units, which will be very useful for the students’ acclimatisation.

“We invited those units that might contribute to the success of our incoming students, such as the Student Development Office, with its student clubs and associations, and the health department; and the Office of Comprehensive Training and Employability, to present the offer of elective subjects, which the mobility students can choose from, as well as language courses, which also include English and Spanish. The initiative Temuco Univerciudad (“UniverCity”) was also present, showing them the large offer of activities in our city,” Antonia Espinoza pointed out.

In addition to the 29 undergraduate students who join UFRO during the second semester, seven graduate students from different countries in America and Europe arrived in Temuco.

“Throughout the semester, we organize several activities, such as trips, fairs and festivals organized by the International Affairs Office and the university; events organized by the members of our Buddy Program; and activities organized by the initiative Temuco Univerciudad, which are open to all mobility students in the city of Temuco,” Antonia Espinoza explained.

It is worth mentioning that the welcome ceremony gave start to the official Orientation Week, which also included the workshop “Living abroad”, where the young students received a number of tips on how to confront the possible challenges of international student mobility; a tour around the city of Temuco; and a welcome activity organized by the “Buddy Program”, which consists of local students who support the incoming mobility students to facilitate their adaptation process.

THE STUDENTS

	Cristian Luna, Nursing, National Autonomous University of Mexico “This activity was very helpful and interesting. Temuco offers a lot of things to do and places to discover, and also the offer of activities here at UFRO sounds very interesting.”
	Millaray Lefimán, deputy director of the Buddy Program of the Student Mobility Office “I presented our program today. The incoming students had the chance to contact us before coming to Chile, so we could help them with issues such as where to go, what clothes to bring, and so on. We wanted them to know that we are a team that works together and that there is an outreach team and our team leaders. Today, we wanted to show them what we do and the activities we have planned for them throughout the semester.”
	Lisa Van Zutphen, International Relations, University of Groningen, the Netherlands “I think that this activity is very useful and interesting, since I did not know anything about UFRO, only those things that my contact of the Buddy Program told me. In the Netherlands, I study International Relations and at UFRO, I will take several courses in Psychology. After receiving all the information today, I think I will also choose an elective in athletics.”

The delegation of Universidad de La Frontera, with researchers of CIAM UFRO and students and graduates of the Physical Education, Sports and Recreation undergraduate program, participated in the International Conference, which took place at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in the city of Santiago de Chile this year.

The aim of the AIESEP (International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education) International Conference is to promote quality research on physical education, physical activity and the teaching of sports. This year, it took place for the first time in Latin America, under the theme “Emerging horizons: Bridging the borders between physical education research and practice”. At the important event, Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) had an outstanding active participation, with the largest delegation among the representatives of Chile, consisting of researchers of the Physical Literacy Research Centre (CIAM) and students and graduates of the Physical Education, Sports and Recreation undergraduate program, who presented their work in different modalities.

One of the highlights of the congress was the Symposium “Physical literacy in Latin America: towards a contextualised development”, presented by CIAM UFRO. In this Symposium, the researchers Dr. Jaime Cárcamo and Dr. Catalina Rivera from UFRO (Chile), Dr. Isaac Estevan from University of Valencia (Spain) and Dr. Joao Martins from University of Lisbon (Portugal), presented their projects, research and experiences related to the development of physical literacy, and discussed the need for a contextualised implementation in Latin America.

In addition to the symposium, other members of CIAM presented their work in different areas, such as Dr. Luis Henríquez, who presented his research on initial teacher training, addressing the issue “Didactic planning during professional internships”; and Nicolás Martínez, who presented the study “Motor competence and compliance with physical activity recommendations in Chilean schoolchildren”.

In the poster presentations modality, the graduated physical education teacher Paulina Candia and the students Javiera Fuentes and Javiera Parada of the Physical Education, Sports and Recreation program of the Faculty of Education, Social Science and Humanities presented their respective work related to Motor Competence.

The participation of the delegation of UFRO in the AIESEP International Conference 2023 allowed the international dissemination of the work of CIAM UFRO, the strengthening of their international partnerships, and a broader and more diverse view of their research and ongoing projects. It also demonstrates the commitment of the research team and the excellence of their work in the field of Physical Literacy, converting the Research Centre into a national reference in this field of knowledge.

“These important participations and contributions strengthen our research and promote the development of more contextualised and effective approaches in Physical Education and the promotion of active lifestyle habits,” Dr. Jaime Cárcamo, the director of CIAM UFRO, explained.

The next AIESEP International Conference will take place on May 13-17, 2024, at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. It will be another great opportunity for the researchers, academics and professionals in the fields of Physical Education, Motor Competence and Physical Literacy to exchange knowledge and present the progress of their work in their fields of studies.

Regional, local and university authorities participated in the official inauguration of the modern six-storey building with more than 4,800 m2, located in the city centre of Temuco.

The inauguration of the new building for the Teaching Dental Clinic (CODA) of Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), located in the city centre of Temuco, is another milestone for the community health in the La Araucanía region.

The modern six-storey building is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and high biosafety standards, on more than 4,800 m2, with 100 treatment rooms and a parking lot, guaranteeing an optimal clinical training for the students of the Dentistry undergraduate program, the five graduate specialization programs and the advanced training courses. In addition, the new building has an operating department with three operating rooms, a central sterilization unit, a dental and maxillofacial radiology unit, classrooms and offices for administration.

“This new first-level facility is of great importance for the training of our future dentists. At the same time, it is a great contribution to our regional community, since we can offer a timely treatment of high quality, accessible to the most vulnerable people in our city and region,” explained Dr. Eduardo Hebel Weiss, the rector of Universidad de La Frontera.

He also emphasized the fundamental role of this new facility for the training of a new generation of dental specialists, as well as the development of dental research in response to new questions at the regional and national level. “We are very happy with this project, which was implemented after several years of dedication, in order to get to where we are now,” Dr. Hebel Weiss added.

“As the Ministry of Technology, Science and Innovation, we are convinced that universities are essential for the development of our society. The new building is an example of that: it will be a centre for knowledge generation, the training of professionals who will contribute to an improvement for society from their fields of knowledge, research and technology transfer,” explained Maite Castro Gallastegui, the Regional Ministerial Secretary of the Ministry of Technology, Science and Innovation.

BIOSAFETY

The new building of UFROs Teaching Dental Clinic fulfils high biosafety standards and is advanced in digitalisation, with the Smile Dental Software, specialised in university dental clinics, which is a support in the management of the clinic and the digital records.

“Although our primary objective as a public and state university is to train dental professionals, we must also be at the service of the people, in all dimensions of human dignity. Therefore, we need to follow the values that motivated the founders of our faculty more than 30 years ago in terms of community engagement in the professional training, which can be achieved through a deep connection with the local community in the teaching process. That way, our students will be able to transform illness into health and illuminate the people’s faces in our region, giving them their smiles back,” said Dr. Gonzalo Oporto Venegas, the dean of UFROs Faculty of Dentistry.

The dean also explained that the Teaching Dental Clinic currently attends more than 2,800 patients, which is an important number at the regional and national level. To access treatments at the clinic, the patients have to apply through a special diagnostic system. Afterwards, they have to go to an initial examination to be referred to the corresponding services of the Faculty of Dentistry.