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The Council of Rectors learned about the main guidelines of the Executive for Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, which were presented by the minister of the portfolio, Flavio Salazar.
During the meeting, the full assembly of rectors bid farewell to Álvaro Rojas Marín, who will leave the rectorship of the University of Talca on May 4th.
“The Council of Rectors is fully prepared to contribute to the work of the Ministry of Science, in accordance with our role as an advisory body in the development of public policies,” said the executive vice president of CRUCH, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, after the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Flavio Salazar, participated in session No. 632.
The Secretary of State participated remotely in the plenary session, which took place at the Saucache Campus of the University of Tarapacá in Arica. Salazar stated that the guidelines on Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation (STKI) are based on assessments previously conducted by universities, the Ministerial Advisory Council, and the Challenges of the Future Commission, among other stakeholders.
Regarding his presence at the session, Rector Zolezzi noted that “it is relevant that Minister Salazar shared the strategic guidelines for the CTCI sector and we see in the Government program several opportunities for the CRUCH universities to contribute from their experiences and installed capacities throughout the country.”.
University collaboration
Minister Salazar explained that the program considers cross-cutting principles, based on sustainability, collaboration, gender equality and inclusion, equity and diversity, decentralization and transdisciplinarity.
Among the strategic objectives set are: 1) strengthening the STI system, its institutional framework and its actors, increasing resources for research development in all areas of knowledge; 2) promoting the decentralization of research and innovation focused on sustainable development, through the establishment of scientific hubs in regions and strengthening the work of universities in this area; 3) promoting and advancing towards national sovereignty of scientific and technological capabilities in strategic areas and articulating public and private initiatives; and 4) democratizing access to knowledge, linking scientific and technological research with social development, promoting sustainability and involving society and territories.
The Secretary of State stressed that the Government's planning requires the collaboration of relevant actors in the sector and, in particular, universities.
Also present at the session was the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Verónica Figueroa, who addressed various topics of interest to the sector, including the working group established by the Ministry of Education with the Confederation of Students of Chile (CONFECH).
Farewell to Rector Rojas
The CRUCH plenary also thanked Álvaro Rojas Marín for his contributions, who attended his last session as rector of the University of Talca, after being the highest authority of said institution for 27 years, first, during the period 1991-2006 and, subsequently, between 2010 and 2022.
Rojas is a veterinarian from the University of Chile and holds a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). In addition to serving as rector of the University of Talca, he was Minister of Agriculture under President Michelle Bachelet and Chile's ambassador to Germany.
During his professional career he received distinctions such as the ‘Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany‘, awarded by the government of that country; the ’Marco Bontá Prize’, awarded by the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of Chile; the “Abate Molina” medal of merit awarded by the University of Talca; and he was recognized among the most outstanding students of the Technical University of Munich.
Rector Zolezzi thanked Rector Rojas “for everything we have been able to learn from him, for his contributions to this Council. We wish him the best of success in his future projects and hope that he will always keep us in his thoughts.”.
For his part, the alternate vice president of CRUCH, the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Ignacio Sánchez, stated that “Álvaro is a visionary person; he doesn't just look at the present and a few years into the future, but he looks with depth.” He added that “he has held several public offices and in all of them he has shown great integrity, sound judgment, and consistency… In plain Chilean terms, one could say he is a man of good character.”.
Álvaro Rojas expressed his gratitude to his peers and valued his participation in the CRUCH. “I learned a great deal in this Council, first as an observer and then, perhaps, with a more prominent role and my own ideas. This Council is a school for university presidents, not only because of the meetings, but also because of the opportunity to cultivate relationships and develop new ideas, which one doesn't always have clear ideas about at one's own university. The CRUCH is a source of inspiration, and I hope it continues to be so for many years to come,” he affirmed.
Rector Rojas will leave his post on May 4 and will be replaced as rector by academic Carlos Torres.
Articulated work in admission
Another of the relevant topics of the session was the presentation of the CRUCH Admission and Enrollment Commission, which is chaired by Ruth Candia, director of Student Academic Registration of the U. de La Frontera.
In her presentation, she reviewed the commission's main actions during 2022 and highlighted some of the relevant issues and challenges on the work agenda for 2023. One of the aspects she emphasized was the coordinated work that has been carried out since March with the Access Committee of the University subsystem of the Ministry of Education, as well as with the CRUCH rectors who are part of said committee (Diego Durán, of the Catholic University of Maule; Natacha Pino, University of Aysén; Carlos Saavedra, University of Concepción; Alberto Martínez, Arturo Prat University and Ennio Vivaldi, University of Chile).
On the other hand, he noted that the delegates from the 30 universities on the Council of Rectors' commission will have an in-person meeting on May 3 and 4 to "review the agenda of changes to the Access System and align ourselves as CRUCH universities. To this end, it is important to create working spaces where we can analyze the changes that affect the admission and enrollment processes.".
It is worth noting that the work of the CRUCH Admission and Enrollment Commission is coordinated by Rector Diego Durán.
*Photographs: University of Tarapacá.
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