In March of 2021, the Rector of UFRO, Dr. Eduardo Hebel Weiss, was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of Universia Chile. This month, he assumed his duties.

Universia is the largest network of university cooperation in Ibero-America. In Chile, it stands out since its foundation, for being a meeting point for the 57 Chilean universities that are part of it. The main lines of action focus on academic orientation and on support for the digital transformation of the universities.

This is the first time that the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) is part of this Board of Directors, being represented by the Rector, Dr. Eduardo Hebel Weiss, since July 14 of 2021. According to the bylaws of the network, the appointment is for two years, but the members can be re-elected for an unlimited number of times.

In this regard, Dr. Hebel said that “our university will make an important contribution to this network that brings about 800 universities from all over the world together. It is the first time that we are part of this Board of Directors and we will be working together with the rectors of the other universities, in order to think about the university of the future”.

Universia Chile is a corporation with a Board of Directors, which consist of the rectors of the following Chilean universities: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad Mayor, Universidad de La Frontera, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad del Desarrollo, Universidad de Talca, Universidad de los Andes, Universidad Santa María and Universidad de Santiago de Chile, as well as of independent individuals and executives of the Santander Group.

Written by: UFRO Communications Office

Pamela Vera Loncomilla and Xeiya Abarzúa Cifuentes are the two students of the UFRO Faculty of Law and Business, who were selected to spend a trimester at DHBW-Ravensburg in Germany in 2021.

The two selected students of the program in Business Administration of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) will have the opportunity to spend a trimester at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Ravensburg, Germany, from July 1 to September 28, thanks to the current agreement between the Faculty of Law and Business at UFRO (FCJE-UFRO) and DHBW-Ravensburg.

In this context, the Director of Outreach of FCJE-UFRO, Dr. Carolina González Suhr, congratulated the students of the program in Business Administration who won the DHBW-Ravensburg Scholarship. “This will be a completely challenging and inspiring experience, given the current circumstances. Year after year, our university works very hard to expand its international networks and to strengthen its partnerships with other universities in order to help our students to improve their curriculum and to offer them a real experience of learning and cultural exchange. I am proud that we are able to be part of this internationalization project of the faculty, which promotes a comprehensive training for the future generations of professionals. And I am sure that, over the next few years, even more students will be motivated to go beyond our borders, what is possible thanks to these strong and promising partnerships.”

It is important to mention that, regarding the global health crisis caused by Covid-19, the students must get a medical insurance that covers the possible costs for medical treatments associated with Covid-19 and, in addition to that, it is mandatory to have a negative test result for coronavirus that is not older than 48 hours upon arrival in the country of destination.

	Pamela Vera Loncomilla “I am getting the great opportunity to study at a German university for a trimester. It will be a challenge that all the classes are taught in English, although that will help me to improve my English proficiency. Another important aspect is that I will have the opportunity to interact with students from different parts of the world, who are also there with a scholarship, like me. And I will get the opportunity to learn more about the German culture, how people relate to each other, and hopefully, if the pandemic allows it, I will be able to visit and see a lot of historical places.”
	Xeiya Abarzúa Cifuentes “I want to considerably improve my English language skills and to develop new competencies related to my field of studies. I also hope to learn from this multicultural environment in which we will be living and to be able to open our minds, to understand the different points of view and/or approaches that different cultures may have, in order to become more empathetic and creative and for being able to positively influence our close circle, our peers at the university and the society we live in.”
	Daniela Henríquez Cruces won the scholarship in 2020, but because of the closed borders during the pandemic, she had not been able to make use of this benefit, yet. “I think that, in a globalized world, we should be able to open our minds and to learn from what other cultures can teach us. I am going to try to learn as much as possible and to acquire new tools that will help me to develop as a professional. We are all aware of what it means to study at a German university in terms of quality. It will be very demanding, but I think that it is very important to make the most of this opportunity, since it will have a huge impact on our lives and our future as a professional.”

Written by: Karen Campos
Faculty of Law and Business, UFRO

Thanks to an agreement signed in 2019, students from both universities will be carrying out joint research, with the aim of achieving a double degree, from Chile and Italy.

The Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) started to collaborate with Sapienza University of Rome in 2017, through the UFRO Doctorate in Communication and the Faculty of Political Sciences, Sociology and Communication of Sapienza, which led to an exchange agreement that was signed two years later and that allows the students of both universities to carry out research under joint supervision, with the possibility to achieve a double degree.

This academic alliance is part of the internationalization process of the UFRO Doctorate in Communication. The program does already have a double degree agreement with the University of Groningen (Netherlands), which currently allows three students to work on their double degree and will allow two other students to start this process next year. In this context, the agreement with Sapienza University will be a great opportunity for even more students.

According to Dr. Carlos del Valle, the director of the doctoral program, the access to a double degree is a significant contribution to the academic training of the students and a cultural and educational enrichment as well.
“Doctoral research within an agreement for joint supervision considerably changes the training perspective. I can really see a transformation in the students, since they started to work with both universities. The level of professionalism in their research and their contributions in our biweekly meetings (which now take place online, because of the pandemic) are each time more sophisticated, because the students get to know new points of view and a different bibliography, which is a very special and useful contribution,” explained Dr. Del Valle.

One of the challenges that the students of the program have to face when they go to other universities – European universities in this case – is the fact that they will have to work in a context that is very different from ours regarding their research and academic stays. “When you work together with other universities in Latin America, the experience is more similar to ours and it is easier to adapt, but when the students go to a university in Europe, they do not only have to adapt to cultural differences in general, but also on the academic level. But, of course, that also makes the experience more exciting and it is definitely worth it,” he said.

The Chinese-Canadian vaccine requires only one dose and is the fourth one approved by the ISP for its use in Chile, where the clinical trials were led by the Universidad de La Frontera.

Chile received the first 300 thousand doses of the Chinese-Canadian vaccine CanSino in the presence of the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris; the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Andrés Couve; the Rector of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), Dr. Eduardo Hebel, and the UFRO researcher Dr. Fernando Lanas, who was part of the team that led the clinical trials for this vaccine in Chile.

CanSino is the fourth vaccine approved by the Institute for Public Health (ISP) in Chile. It requires only one dose and the Health Minister pointed out that it will be used mainly in remote areas. These 300,000 doses are the first batch of 1,800,000 doses that will arrive in Chile.

“Today is a great day for Chile,” Dr. Eduardo Hebel, the Rector of UFRO, said, adding that the Universidad de La Frontera has joined the efforts made by scientists around the world. “Today, we can proudly see that the study we were leading at a regional university, in alliance with three other Chilean universities, brought concrete and significant results for the Chilean population, since we received the first doses of this vaccine, being able to distribute them all over the country. We were able to make an important contribution as a regional university, making visible our capacities, thanks to the collaborative work within the national and international scientific community.”

Dr. Fernando Lanas, a researcher of the Faculty of Medicine who was part of the team that led the clinical trials for this vaccine in Chile, thanked the authorities for the trust they have placed in the university to lead and coordinate the work, as well as the 3,500 volunteers who participated in the trials and contributed to the knowledge and health of the people around the world.

The UFRO researcher explained that this vaccine uses an inactive human adenovirus, which carries the “S” protein of the coronavirus on its surface. He also highlighted that the interim studies indicated an effectiveness of 65.7% to prevent symptomatic cases and 90.98% to prevent severe cases. “When we received the invitation to coordinate this study, we knew that Chile had already purchased a substantial amount of vaccines, so we started the trial thinking that they might not be used. Today, we are very happy to see the arrival of these first doses.”

The Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies at UFRO, Dr. Pamela Serón, emphasized that this has been a huge effort by the researchers from UFRO, the universities Universidad San Sebastián and Universidad Austral de Chile, different Health Centers, the Scientific Committee on Vaccines and the Saval Laboratories. “We are very proud and satisfied, since we were able to fulfill such a fundamental task of a university, which is the promotion, coordination and research that leads to an impact on the well-being of the society,” she concluded.

Written by: Karimme Riadi Millas
Vice-Rectorate for Research and Graduate Studies, UFRO