Acting President of CRUCH, Rosa Devés: “We must support admission to teacher training programs at our universities, that is key”

The Council of Rectors and Rectors committed to working with the Access Committee and the Undersecretariat of Higher Education to review the situation of admissions to teacher training programs and evaluate both the criteria and the access routes.

During the plenary session on Thursday, June 27, held at the Diego Portales University, an agreement was also signed with the TECHO-Chile foundation.

The shortage of teachers in the school system is a matter of concern across the board for the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), especially in the lead-up to the entry into force of Law 20.903 which creates the Teacher Professional Development System and modifies other regulations.

In this regard, the acting president of CRUCH and rector of the University of Chile, Rosa Devés, stated that “we must support admission to teacher training programs at our universities; that is key. We are very committed to the training of teachers and also concerned about the specific admissions systems for them.” Along these lines, CRUCH presented the Minister of Education, Nicolás Cataldo, with the report “Teaching Changes Lives” (See here) in March of this year.

During the CRUCH plenary session held this Thursday, June 27, at the Diego Portales University in Santiago, Devés stated that “we are going to work with the Access Committee (Mineduc) and also very closely with the Undersecretariat of Higher Education to review what has been happening in recent years regarding admissions to teacher training programs and evaluate what the best criteria and access routes are to have robust teacher training programs and to attract and inspire young people with these careers.”.

Meanwhile, Ruth Candia, president of the CRUCH Admissions and Enrollment Commission, pointed out that the law, which comes into effect in 2025, “establishes specific qualification criteria that do not favor entry into teaching. It is important to consider that the current context is different from when the law was published -in March 2016- and, moreover, the instruments have also changed.”.

Regarding the deadlines, “a definition is expected no later than September, when the Final Offer of Careers, Weightings, Regular Vacancies and PACE is published,” said Candia, who serves as director of Student Academic Registration at the University of La Frontera.

Research fund management

Also attending the Council plenary session was the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Aysén Etcheverry, who requested the support of the CRUCH to find a joint solution to the problems in the execution and accountability of expenses of projects financed by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development – Fondecyt (postdoctoral, start and regular)

The president of the CRUCH Research Advisory Commission, Pedro Bouchon, also spoke about this, arguing that over the years the complexity of project management has increased, which "distracts universities and researchers from the main focus: research.".

“The system has grown tremendously and ANID (National Research and Development Agency) has insufficient capacity to handle that evolution (…) We were looking at how to improve without reducing oversight, because we all want to be very responsible with public funds, but we do want to make it more efficient, more expeditious and based, of course, on trust and joint work,” said the acting president of CRUCH, Rosa Devés.

In this regard, the Council of Rectors and Rectors committed to forming a working group, made up of some vice-rectors of research and the economic vice-rectors of the CRUCH universities, to collaborate with the ANID team on this issue.

TECHO-CHILE and CRUCH Agreement

During the session, an agreement was also signed with the TECHO-Chile foundation, which seeks to establish the basis for the development of joint actions that will generate, coordinate and articulate instances of cooperation in emergency situations.

The acting president of CRUCH, Rector Devés, stated that this agreement is very valuable for the Council, as it complements the comprehensive education of the students. “It is very important that they can find significant meaning in their education and contribute what they have already learned (…) We see it as a contribution to our educational work,” the rector indicated.

Among the cooperation initiatives being considered are the recruitment and training of volunteers to participate in “emergency work”; identifying, generating and providing technical or specialized advice; collaborating in the setup of donation collection spaces; and in general any type of joint collaboration that could contribute to the mission of both institutions.

Text and photos: CRUCH Communications