The Ceremony of the XXXVII. Anniversary of the Universidad de La Frontera and the Opening of the Academic Year 2018 took place at the Aula Magna.

“Because of the intentions and ambitions, the Universidad de La Frontera is not only the result of the work of the cloister. It has been knitted by thousands of wishes, enriched by hundreds of dreams and driven by the energy of hundreds of men and women who live and work in and outside of this region.” With these words, the Rector, Sergio Bravo, gave a tone of acknowledgement and gratitude to the ceremony in which the 37th Institutional Anniversary has been celebrated.

Members of the University Community, authorities and representatives of civil and military organizations came together at the Aula Magna to review the institutional history and the promising present and to acknowledge that the accomplishments reached during these 37 years have been possible thanks to the spirit and the determination in the first years and the capacities and talents of who, then and today, are part of the University.

“Tradition and change is the direction we are heading for. If the retrospective view permits us to contemplate with astonishment what we have built, the view of the present confirms that our energy and perseverance is still intact. To this enduring link to the past, we have to sum the acknowledgement and estimation of the present personified by the ones who give life to the institution and make it progress, despite the uncertainty”, the Rector emphasized.

MEDAL FOR ACADEMIC TRAJECTORY

At the ceremony of the 37th UFRO Anniversary and the opening of the academic year 2018, the Medals for Academic Trajectory at the Universidad de La Frontera have been awarded, an important acknowledgement that is given to those who stand out for their work and contribution to the institutional development.

This year, Guillermo Soza Contreras and René Cifuentes Bobadilla have been awarded.

Guillermo Soza Contreras is a physician (University of Chile), specialist in pediatrics and infectious diseases. He has been working as a teacher at the Health Department (University of Chile, office in Temuco), as an associate professor at the Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery Department of the Faculty of Medicine at the UFRO and as the director of the Department just mentioned between 1981 and 1994. Between 1981-1994 and 2010-2016, he has been working as the director of the Program of Specialization in Pediatrics.

René Cifuentes Bobadilla is an executing mechanical engineer at the State Technical University and a mechanical engineer at the Universidad Austral of Chile. He has a Master´s Degree in Engineering of the Technical University Federico Santa María. His specialties are hydroelectric power plants and clean energies and he has done several postgraduate courses at Universities in Mexico and Switzerland. He was the director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the Governing Board of the UFRO.

MASTER CLASS: EVALUATE TO IMPROVE

The traditional Master Class of the opening of the Academic Year at the UFRO 2018, was held by Dr. Ricardo Reich Albertz, assessor for Higher Education of the Ministry of Education.

His topic was the central evaluation as an instrument for permanent improvement. During his exposition, Reich emphasized the enormous advance the University has obtained during the last years, in the national and international context, delivering background and benchmarking information that permitted the assistants to calibrate the global results of particular efforts by knowing the way in which scientific productivity, the quality of the cloister, the students´ profile or the university outreach are entwined and form a University of Worldwide Prestige.