CRUCH universities promote their doctoral programs during a visit to Ecuador

A group of postgraduate directors from nine universities of the Council of Rectors participated in this program, which aimed to promote the national doctoral offerings, with the goal of attracting students from Ecuador and generating academic collaboration networks with universities in that country.

Nine representatives from universities belonging to the Council of Rectors, in conjunction with ProChile and the Chilean Agency for International Cooperation (AGCI), successfully completed a tour of Ecuador. During the visit, they held meetings with eight universities in both Quito and Guayaquil, as well as a meeting with the National Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (Senescyt) and the Ministry of Knowledge and Human Talent.

Between September 26 and 27, these nine representatives from the universities of the Council of Rectors visited eight institutions: the Central University of Ecuador, the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, FLACSO, the Andean University Simón Bolívar, the San Francisco University of Quito, the Polytechnic School of the Coast (ESPOL), Casa Grande University, and the University of Guayaquil. They also met with representatives from various universities and networks, including the University of Loja, the University of Cuenca, the University of the Americas, and the International University of Ecuador, at a brief seminar organized by the Embassy of Chile and FLACSO in Quito.

In all these meetings, the doctoral programs offered by the CRUCH universities were presented, and the Ecuadorian universities expressed their interest in collaboration. The result was a clear indication of the strong interest among Ecuadorian universities in cooperating with CRUCH, whether in postgraduate training programs, faculty exchanges, student mobility, or publications, as well as in the possibility of discussions on the development of higher education systems in the region.

This initiative of the Council of Rectors was especially valued by the Embassy of Chile in Ecuador, whose ambassador, Juan Pablo Lira, pledged to maintain its dissemination and seek alternatives and channels for productive academic collaboration.

Following the visit, the Postgraduate Advisory Commission indicated that it will communicate as soon as possible the commitments it hopes to promote in order to realize the expectations of the CRUCH institutions and their Ecuadorian counterparts.