Relevance, comprehensive professional training, internationalization, quality and outreach and community engagement – these are the pillars that will support the work of the Universidad de La Frontera over the next five years.

In the sceneries country, contingents and the approbation in the parliament of the Reform Law of Higher Education and the Law of Public Universities, make it necessary to reflect on the road behind and in front of us, as a University, with view on the next five years.

In this context, the Executive Committee and the Deans of the University got together in order to adjust and define the actual vision of the UFRO and, this way, formulate the institution´s goals.

According to the rector, Sergio Bravo, this is the right time to do that, since we are at a defining moment. “We cannot rest on this status quo. I want to clarify that this is not a change of vision. The essence of the University remains. This is just a readjustment of what we declared as an institution in order to broaden the possibilities of action, putting an emphasis on what we want to do and where we want to go, with a strategic view.”

He added that, with the future implementation of these laws, the State will force the public universities to work with it. “Large part of the resources we are going to receive will have a specific focus, thinking about how the University is linked to its environment. And this is why we have to take a look at our University and define where we want to be in the next five years.”

FOCUS

The focus will be put on the fact that the institution cannot lose sight of the tendencies, the scenario of competencies, the collaboration and the necessity of building more and better networks in order to position itself in different levels and to meet the social demands of the environment. The just mentioned has to be accompanied by the quality and excellence which distinguishes the University, but also has to progress and improve in order to keep with the new times.

“This definitely is an anticipated task that wants to anticipate the challenges that are still coming. When we do this work, we are giving a strong signal, because it shows that we are a university with the capability of self-regulation and that shows quality,” the director of Institutional Analysis, Dr. Ricardo Herrera, added.

WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITY

The seal that has been created by the Ministry of Education includes having world-class universities, because Chile wants and has to enter this scenario. And as a regional university, it is necessary to keep up with the changes.

“Internationalization and quality are two topics we cannot ignore. We have to keep working in this field, with a strategic point of view that assures that our national and international links are strong; that our excellence is on a high level because of the quality of the processes we carry out. We have to keep being good in who we are and persist in that. It is the only way for being able to stay competitive and attractive,” the rector pointed out.