CRUCH and UNIFI explore new challenges for bilateral cooperation

21/08/2012
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Chilean and Finnish university presidents met today at FORUM II at the University of Santiago.

With the aim of deepening the exchange and integration of knowledge and culture in Higher Education, Forum II was held today, a meeting between the Universities of Finland (UNIFI), the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), and the Estonian Rectors' Conference (ERC), whose president, Rector Alar Karis of the University of Tartu, also attended Forum II. Following Forum I, held in Helsinki in April of last year, this forum concluded with the idea of transforming discussions and reflections on higher education into specific projects.

“It’s time to take the next step and transform these discussions into concrete actions. Several areas of potential cooperation are emerging, such as teacher training, forestry, mining, and engineering, which can be developed into future activities like seminars, workshops, internships, and so on. Now, the task falls to each university, which will play a key role in identifying mutual areas of interest and establishing cooperation goals. We are all hoping that our visits to the regions will allow us to strengthen this partnership for future collaboration between CRUCH institutions and UNIFI,” said Lisa Savunen, UNIFI Executive Director, at the close of Forum II.

Her counterpart in Chile, the executive director of CRUCH, Teresa Marshall, said she was very pleased with this opportunity to work together, not only with UNIFI but also with the Estonian Rectors' Conference (ERC), who, represented by their president, Alan Karis, expressed their interest in maintaining collaborations between the three countries.

“In this search for new opportunities for collaboration in research and in the academic training of young people entering our universities, we closed Forum II with lessons and challenges, and with the conviction that we will continue working so that each of our institutions has a partner in Finland with which there are collaborative projects,” Marshall explained.

Teacher training

One of the topics that generated the most discussion and reflection during the day was teacher training, following a presentation by Professor Aino Sallinen from the University of Jyväskylä on the Finnish experience. Professor Sallinen emphasized the need for a comprehensive vision of the desired future direction in order to improve teacher training, and then to outline how to achieve it. “Next,” she concluded, “you have to commit to the decision made and seek the resources to move in the right direction.”.

Among Chilean university rectors and academics, several opinions emerged regarding what Chile needs to improve to move closer to the award-winning Finnish model. Rector Luis Alberto Loyola of the University of Antofagasta referred to the need to enhance the quality of teacher training provided in our country.

“We need to strengthen our human capital in the area of teacher training in order to make changes and approach pedagogy differently because we only have one accredited doctoral program in the area of education in Chile,” he said.

Likewise, Rector Víctor Cubillos, rector of the Austral University and president of the CRUCH International Relations Committee, argued that teachers in Chile lack social value. “There is a lack of social recognition for teachers here. There are several important things for being a teacher that are often overlooked: having at least a master's degree, salary, improved training, and social recognition, among other things, because if we don't make progress in these areas, we won't make progress in education,” he explained.

Regional visits

After a long day on Monday, the Finnish university rectors will split into three groups for three regional visits. One delegation will travel to Antofagasta, where they will visit the Paranal Observatory, the University of Antofagasta, and the Catholic University of the North, meeting with academics to discuss mining, astronomy, and education. Another group will be hosted by the Austral University in Valdivia, where they will explore opportunities for academic collaboration. A third group will travel to Valparaíso, where their primary interests include biotechnology at the Federico Santa María Technical University and the Catholic University of Valparaíso, and education and social sciences at the University of Playa Ancha and the University of Valparaíso.

Back in Santiago they will visit three universities in the metropolitan region: the University of Chile, the Catholic University and the University of Santiago, where they will meet with rectors, deans and students, touring some of their respective faculties.

The first meeting took place in April of last year in Helsinki, where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two organizations, establishing the foundation for mutual academic cooperation. At that meeting, the Finnish representatives presented on topics such as educational reform and the internationalization of UNIFI universities, as well as addressing broader issues such as funding, current trends in higher education, quality assurance, and curriculum development.