News
The executive vice president of CRUCH, Emilio Rodríguez, indicated that various commissions will collaborate with the Ministry of Education, which will allow "decisive progress in strengthening higher education, fundamentally by modernizing it and bringing it in line with the challenges of the 21st century and the knowledge society.".
During the session, the Minister of Education, Nicolás Cataldo, greeted the plenary and highlighted "the collaborative spirit that the universities of the Council of Rectors and Rectors have always had with the State in the definition of public policies, in the leadership in the main processes of transformation of the country.".
The plenary session of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH) analyzed the proposal for the “Strategy for the Modernization of Chilean Higher Education for Sustainable Human Development”, presented by the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Víctor Orellana, in the session held this Thursday, August 31, at the University of Atacama, in Copiapó.
In this regard, the executive vice president of CRUCH, Rector Emilio Rodríguez, stated that “today’s session has been truly very important, because we have been discussing a series of topics that will impact the development of higher education in the coming years. Primarily, we have been discussing the modernization of the Chilean higher education system, within an integrated vision of this process.”.
Rodríguez, who is also the rector of the University of Tarapacá, explained that “this is linked, for example, to the shortening of some degree programs, to the intermediate exit points that must be created, to the framework of continuing education, and to what is called the qualification framework, in a longer-range perspective.”.
During his address, Undersecretary Víctor Orellana stated that the strategy considers three main aspects: academic modernization; modernization of management, governance, and financing; and higher education as a social right. He also outlined the work plan, which includes the conceptual design of the academic modernization proposal for 2023 and, for the 2024-2025 period, the development of pilot projects.
In this same context, the Minister of Education and President of CRUCH, Nicolás Cataldo, who briefly joined the session remotely, emphasized that “we have a challenge as a country, not only in higher education, but also in early childhood education and school education, regarding facing a process of modernization of the education sector.”.
The minister also took the opportunity to highlight before the plenary session of rectors and rectors, "the collaborative spirit that the universities of the Council of Rectors and Rectors have always had with the State in the definition of public policies, in the leadership in the main processes of transformation of the country.".
In this context, Rector Rodríguez stated that “we believe that through collaborative work with the CRUCH committees, such as the Academic Vice-Rectors Committee, the Community Engagement Committee, and the Economic Committee, among others, we will be able to make decisive progress in strengthening higher education in the coming months, fundamentally by modernizing it and aligning it with the challenges of the 21st century and the knowledge society.”.
Minister Cataldo
In his first meeting with the full Council, Minister Nicolás Cataldo stated that "it is of great interest to me to create this space for conversation with you, because for me the CRUCH has a fundamental role in the development of higher education, not only today, but historically.".
He valued the ongoing collaboration between CRUCH and the State and pointed out that “today we are collaborating strongly with many CRUCH organizations, precisely in areas that are strategic for the Ministry of Education, such as educational reactivation, regarding issues such as coexistence, learning recovery, among others.”.
Regarding the challenges in higher education, the Minister commented that “we clearly distinguish the academic axis, which has to do with reviewing and updating training processes, research and community engagement, to put them at the service of sustainable development, not only at the local and regional levels, but also nationally, and that is where we want to work with you, obviously, in that design (...). Chile has to continue moving forward and strengthening its decentralization.”.
Minister Cataldo also addressed the challenge in terms of financing and stated that “we know that there are many resources allocated to higher education and today we want to undertake a process of reorganizing these contributions and review all the demand-side subsidy instruments that we have operating in the system.”.
Finally, the Minister of Education invited the CRUCH plenary to work in a coordinated manner, "so that we can move forward together in addressing the challenges of the higher education sector, the development challenges of the country and in that sense, then, link our work, our connection, very closely.".
Other highlights of the session
The Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation (CTCI), Aisén Etcheverry, was present at the session to invite universities to the Science Festival that the ministry is organizing for the beginning of October.
On the other hand, the National Director of the Social Security Institute (IPS), Patricio Coronado, and the executive vice president of CRUCH, Emilio Rodríguez, signed an agreement for Public Cooperation and Innovation, which will last for one year, renewable for equal periods for a maximum of five years.
Finally, the CRUCH Gender Equality Commission presented the main progress made in the last year across its three areas of action: eradication of violence, institutionalization, and training processes. The rector in charge of the commission, Natacha Pino, along with its coordinator, Angélica Marín, from the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences, highlighted the main achievements of the gender offices at the 30 CRUCH universities and outlined the main challenges.
Finally, the plenary session recognized the rector of the University of O'Higgins, Rafael Correa, and the rector of the University of Aysén, Natacha Pino, who are completing their terms. Their respective contributions to their universities and their participation in the CRUCH sessions were highlighted.
Dr. Rafael Correa Fontecilla is a civil engineer and mathematician from the University of Chile, with doctorates in Engineering from the University of Clermont and in Mathematical Sciences from Blaise Pascal University in France. Throughout his career, he has distinguished himself by contributing to the development of science in Chile and has held various public positions.
He assumed the position of rector at the University of O'Higgins in 2015, the year this state university was created in the region of the same name, during the second administration of former President Michelle Bachelet. At the end of his eight-year term, the university experienced significant growth and received its first institutional accreditation (2023-2027).
Meanwhile, Natacha Pino is an Industrial Civil Engineer from the University of La Frontera and holds a Master's degree in Advanced Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
In September 2019, she assumed the rectorship of the University of Aysén, becoming the first woman elected to the position by her peers at a state university in Chile.
In April 2021, she assumed the role of acting rector of the Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), standing out for her leadership and for positioning the work of the commission both nationally and internationally.
Regarding her management as rector, in early 2023 the National Accreditation Commission accredited UAysén.
Spanish 
English