President of the CRUCH VcM Commission, Ximena Gauché: “We are very satisfied and pleased with the work we have managed to carry out in a collaborative and participatory manner during this period”

At the last plenary session of CRUCH, the rectors approved two documents: the “Integrated Diagnosis of Community Engagement” and the “Glossary of Community Engagement”.

The diagnosis includes models, strategies and best practices at the national level for the institutional strengthening of this university mission and the glossary will allow for a standardized technical language among the 30 CRUCH universities.

More than two years have passed since the creation of the Community Engagement Commission (VcM) of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH) and its members have worked hard to strengthen this university dimension, which since May 30, 2025 has been mandatory in the evaluation processes established by law for institutional accreditation before the National Accreditation Commission (CNA-Chile).

At the last plenary session of CRUCH, which took place at the Metropolitan Technological University on August 28, the rectors unanimously approved two documents: an Integrated Diagnosis and a Glossary of Linkage with the Environment for the CRUCH universities.

Ximena Gauché, president of the CRUCH commission and vice-rector of Community Engagement at the University of Concepción, details in this interview the process that has been carried out and the contributions of the 30 universities.

Vice-Rector, first of all, what was the objective of developing the “Integrated Diagnosis of Community Engagement” and what shared actions or lines of work do you think can be generated from it? 

The “Integrated Diagnosis” is one of the results of the commission's work plan implementation. It addresses models, strategies, and best practices in community engagement among CRUCH universities, aimed at strengthening this mission institutionally. It was also conceived as a tool, an instrument that characterizes, at a descriptive level, the management, administration, and contribution models of community engagement in the thirty universities.

This involved a comprehensive process of gathering information through secondary data, which was systematized by a collaborative team from the Universities of Concepción, Valparaíso, and the Catholic University of Temuco. Primary data, obtained from a common instrument applied to all thirty CRUCH universities, were also considered. This instrument helped identify trends, patterns, critical issues, and findings regarding the strategies, structures, models, and, above all, the key best practices that these institutions emphasize.

The survey considered nine key areas, which translate into the following dimensions of diagnostic analysis: institutional linkage strategies; organic structures and internal coordination; institutional policies; incentive models; inclusion of linkage in the academic career; communication strategies; results; articulation mechanisms; and good practices.

This diagnosis was presented in a very extensive and detailed manner to the commission during the in-person working session held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso on August 7 and 8. The document was unanimously approved at that time.

Then, on August 28, its general aspects were presented to the rectors of the CRUCH (Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities), who also unanimously approved it. It is currently in a final review and design stage, after which it will be delivered to the rector in charge of the commission (Carlos Saavedra, University of Concepción).

Our hope is that this will be a tool that can be shared by various universities, not only within their community engagement teams, but also with other teams. To contribute to this, during the remaining months of 2025, we will organize activities to promote awareness of the findings and best practices contained herein.

Regarding the "Glossary of Community Engagement," what will be the benefit to CRUCH universities of having this document? When will it be released?

It should be noted that the Glossary was also one of the commitments assumed by the Community Engagement Commission and is understood as a tool, a common reference instrument to strengthen clarity and coherence, to have an input that favors decision-making by universities, particularly by the teams in charge of Community Engagement.

While not binding, it can also contribute to other mission teams by providing a standardized technical language that facilitates the design, implementation, or evaluation of community engagement or quality policies or practices adopted by each university.

The Glossary has been the result of the work of a small commission coordinated by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in conjunction with the universities of Chile, Santiago de Chile, Arturo Prat and Federico Santa María Technical University.

In its development, there was also an iterative process to consult the opinions of the other CRUCH universities through various methods, including meetings and a questionnaire. The result is a total of 15 concepts that were presented at the commission's plenary session in early August.

During the plenary session of the VcM Commission, held in early August in Valparaíso, recent accreditation experiences under the new CNA criteria and standards were shared. From the participants' perspective, what was the contribution of this forum, and what were some of the main conclusions and agreements?

During the plenary session of the commission, experiences of accreditation processes from five universities were presented: University of Chile, Alberto Hurtado University, Catholic University of Temuco, University of La Frontera and University of Bío-Bío.

These are all experiences at different stages of their processes: some are awaiting the results, others have just submitted their self-evaluation report, and still others are waiting for a peer review visit. The common characteristic is that they were all carried out under the new accreditation criteria for Community Engagement.

The representatives of the commission were able to share what the main challenges had been in preparing the report or the peer visit, based on the new criteria.

Key takeaways include the emphasis shared on the importance of peer reviewers placing on purposive sampling. Also highlighted was the importance of having institutional definitions for measuring contribution or impact, for example, underscoring the value of collaborative spaces like these.

Do you want to add anything else? 

In closing, as the Community Engagement Committee, we are very pleased with the collaborative and participatory work we have accomplished during this period. We hope these results will pave the way for the next phase of the 2026-2027 work plan, to be implemented by the incoming board in January.

We also hope that in this new stage we can effectively make progress on issues that pose greater challenges in terms of coordination, such as registration systems and, of course, platform issues, reporting, and others.

The plenary session of rectors and rectors of the CRUCH approved the creation of the Community Engagement Commission in May 2023, based on three main aspects: the importance of community engagement for higher education and accreditation in Chile; the value and coordination of community engagement among university institutions, both among themselves and with other organizations; and the institutional framework at the university level of CRUCH, which in most cases has a community engagement policy.

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Text: CRUCH Communications

Photo: UdeC Communications