Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Mexico and Uruguay are the destinations chosen by the students of UFRO for their stays, research activities and internships. These opportunities are a reflection of indicators of institutional growth and strength, as well as of international cooperation.

The long-awaited moment of departure has finally come for the undergraduate students of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) who are going to spend a semester abroad thanks to different financing options and opportunities offered by the agreements of UFRO with other universities all over the world. Therefore, the university organized a farewell ceremony for the 39 students, with the authorities and teams of the Vice-rectorate for Undergraduate Affairs and the International Affairs Office, which is part of the Vice-rectorate for Academic Affairs.

“We would like to congratulate all of you, because we know that this experience requires a lot of effort and perseverance and that it will definitely teach you a lot. As a university, we are always working on new scholarships and opportunities in order to offer this possibility to even more students in the future,” said the Vice-rector Dr. Renato Hunter in his speech for the students.

UFRO AMBASSADORS

This semester, UFRO has a large group of outgoing students who will spend a semester at universities in North America, Europe, Latin America, as well as at other universities in Chile. It is worth mentioning that apart from external scholarships, UFRO also offers a large number of financing options for all student mobility types.

“The large number of outgoing students in this second semester of 2022 makes us very proud. It is the result of an important institutional effort, not only because of the increase in financial resources, but also because of the increase in agreements that allow the students to participate in mobility programs of even more universities and in more fields of studies,” said Dr. Lorena Vieli, the director of UFROs International Affairs Office.

“There is no doubt that each student who makes use of our mobility opportunities needs to be prepared and our International Student Mobility Office is always willing to help them with that, to make the process successful. We also hope that even more of our undergraduate students get motivated and make use of these opportunities in the future,” explained Antonia Espinoza, the head of the International Student Mobility Office.

FROM THE SOUTH OF CHILE INTO THE WORLD

A group of five students of the fields of engineering, sciences and administration, and of the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities will go to universities in Mexico and Spain, as well as to the University of Regina and the Lakehead University in Canada, with Santander Scholarships.

In addition to this group, two students of the Faculty of Law and Business will spend a semester at the German university Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) and two students of the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences will spend a semester at the Belgian university KU Leuven, thanks to the fruitful agreements with both universities.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Four students of the Faculty of Medicine will spend a semester for their studies and internships in Spain, Mexico and Uruguay, thanks to the UFRO Sin Fronteras (‘UFRO without borders’) scholarship. This scholarship also allows 15 other students to spend a semester at universities in Germany and Austria.

In addition, the Student Mobility Scholarship program offered 11 open spots for educational establishments in Canada, France and Spain. Students of the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, the Faculty of Law and Business, and the Faculty of Engineering and Science filled these spots. Apart from that, several students made use of the mobility options for national universities, some of them self-financed.

THE STUDENTS

	María Jesús Manosalba, Industrial Civil Engineering with specialization in Mechanics Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain “I will be able to join the Technical University thanks to a Santander scholarship. The process was quite competitive, but it was a good experience. I always participated in innovation programs and projects of the university and what I have learned was very helpful – for example in the Leading Women Program ‘STEM-UFRO’ of my faculty. Now I hope to be able to take some electives and subjects that match my field of studies.”
	Katherine Oñate, Obstetrics & Childcare University of the Republic, Uruguay   “UFRO has an agreement with this university and I am the first student of my study program that will participate in this internship program in Montevideo. I had this idea for a long time and last semester, I started to search scholarships. I will learn a lot about maternity there, since Uruguay has a low mortality rate at birth and lots of healthcare regulations for the benefit and safety of the patients.”
	Catalina Hidalgo, Journalism Lakehead University, Canada “I am highly motivated because of the experience I am going to gain by living abroad, besides of the improvement of my professional skills and my personal growth. I want to achieve the goals that I have set for myself many years ago. Therefore, I am going to take subjects in the fields of culture, journalistic writing and editing, and independent media development. I also started to take online courses at a university in New Zealand on global competencies, and I constantly search for new opportunities.”
	Eduardo Salas, Agronomy KU Leuven, Belgium “I am going to participate in a research program and I will take some subjects of the eights semester. As the study of agronomy strongly depends on the demographic and geological environment, it will be different from here. Therefore, I chose subjects that are compatible with my studies here and included subjects such as anthropology and sociology, dairy technology and fruit growing, among others.”