The activity was organized by the National Accreditation Commission and was attended by national and international experts.

The academic of the Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education career, Desirée López de Maturana, the Coordinator of the Pedagogy in Mathematics and Physics career, Luis Tamblay, together with the team from the Curriculum Management Area of ​​the Teaching Improvement Unit of the Teaching Directorate , participated in the International Seminar: “Initial Teacher Training and quality assurance: impact and challenges of policy within the framework of a new law on teaching careers in Chile.”

The activity was attended by national and international experts who discussed the challenges posed by the implementation of the new Teacher Professional Development Law, critical factors, accreditation and quality assurance strategies in Initial Teacher Training.

The Seminar was held in the city of Santiago on Friday, November 16 and was organized by the National Accreditation Commission, CNA Chile.

The academic met with the heads of the Journalism programs of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the University of Santiago de Chile and the University of Arts, Science and Communication (UNIACC).

With the aim of sharing the experiences of teaching methodologies in the implementation of curricular renewals, precisely in the area of ​​digital journalism, the use of new technologies and media convergences, the Director of the ULS School of Journalism, Mg. Cristian Muñoz Catalán, visited the Journalism courses at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the University of Santiago de Chile and the University of Arts, Science and Communication (UNIACC).

In Santiago, the academic met with the heads of the courses to analyze the transition of these units to adapt to new technologies and new ways of doing journalism, especially when writing without abandoning its foundations.

“It was concluded that the basis of journalism remains the same because in the face of this entire media emergency, what is needed is quality media. Therefore, the comparison of sources, the writing of news and headlines, in the three universities came to the conviction that we do not have to invent a new journalism, what we have to see are the contents and use what technology allows us” Muñoz said about the conclusions he reached with the other directors.

Furthermore, he added that "although at the time it was thought that it was possible for there to be a specific wording for each medium, in practice that has not been the case, in fact there are publications that are longer than a paper report and are enriched with other content and that is where the plus that new technologies present to us is” he concluded.

The three races visited are very diverse from each other and each one is very particular. The USACh School of Journalism, headed by René Jara, belongs to a state university and in recent years has received students from this university who benefited from the student mobility scholarship. While the UC unit, whose Director is Ingrid Bachmann, is the one with the most years of accreditation, with a total of 7. And the UNIACC School, whose direction is headed by Constanza Hormazábal, stands out for have a cutting edge in technology, especially in the television area.

The visit was also a reason to present the renewed curricular framework that the race launched this year, with the purpose of having an external reference regarding the changes made and thus take into account the experience of these races in the face of the internal changes implemented. “The new curricular framework was very well evaluated, which leaves us quite calm since we are on the right path and what we need is to properly follow up on the process to be able to extract the greatest amount of information that allows us, in turn, to correct or adapt what is necessary and especially because it is the first time that we implement this” concluded the Director regarding the curricular renewal process and the comments obtained.

Source: School of Journalism

The initiative corresponds to the second 6-year stage of the Corfo Program “Implementation of the Strategic Plan - New Engineering”.

The Faculty of Engineering of the ULS reported that the Corfo Technological Capabilities Subcommittee, in session No. 302 held on Tuesday, November 13, resolved to approve the application of the project: “FIULS 2030” nominated for the “Implementation of the Plan” Program Strategic - New Engineering for 2030 regions”.

Corfo's "New Engineering for 2030 - Regions" Program aims to improve the training process and future development of professionals in Chile, and to consolidate Engineering faculties and transform them into national and international benchmarks, improving their academic training rates, competitiveness and connection with the environment. The Program considers three stages, the first of which was developed by FIULS between December 2016 and September 2017 jointly with the University of Atacama, through the Ignacio Domeyko Engineering Consortium. In the second stage of Implementation of the Strategic Plan, in which the FIULS applied individually, six years are considered for its execution. “FIULS 2030” awarded MM$1.712 for the first three years of implementation. After the third year, the development and objectives of the project must consider its sustainability, as well as a new application for Corfo funds. The third stage is considered the monitoring of the Strategic Plan until 2030.

In this way, the Faculty of Engineering of the U. de La Serena seeks to become a national and international benchmark in R&D&I&E, with emphasis on mining, energy and sustainability, involving the different actors and sectors of the society, to contribute to the formation of world-class human capital.

Design of the “FIULS 2030” Strategic Plan

In the first stage of designing the Strategic Plan, a diagnosis of the Faculty was carried out, where background information on the educational model was incorporated, showing results and indicators in the areas of the curricular framework, innovation, entrepreneurship, internationalization, competitiveness, networks, among other relevant aspects.

After that, the project focused on taking as a reference the management developed by those engineering schools of the most prominent universities in Europe and the United States, considered the best in the academic and training field, with the purpose of adopting and adapting their methods and strategies in specific axes such as Human Capital and Change Management and Curricular Harmonization and Technological Postgraduate Degrees. Added to these are Applied R&D and Linkage with Industry; Technology Commercialization and Technology-Based Entrepreneurship; International Alliances and Mobility and Associative Governance and Synergies. The FIULS has established the existing gaps between the Faculty and the universities visited, antecedents that have been used as input for the formulation of the Strategic Plan. The above, for the direct benefit of academics, students and the regional environment.

To carry out the final phase of the project (benchmarking and strategic plan), the support provided by LASPAU (an organization affiliated with Harvard University), which coordinated, managed and accompanied the international missions, was of special importance. In addition, it validates and supports the work carried out in benchmarking and the Strategic Plan.

Expected results

In recent years, innovation and knowledge-based entrepreneurship have been strongly promoted. Within this framework, FIULS 2030 is constituted as an educational, innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem that uses technology as a vehicle to produce an impact in the national and international market, for which we have worked to build and understand the important direct collaboration efforts to the achievement of such objectives.

“FIULS 2030”, with the support of Corfo, hopes to increase its activities with national and foreign industry players, increase the international recognition of its Faculty of Engineering, add professionals with practical experience in the development of innovations and new study plans in undergraduate and postgraduate, in order to achieve international standards in engineering education, to address R&D&i&e and to have more qualified human capital in the area of ​​engineering.

There will be an institutional management system integrated into a technological platform to strengthen its academic programs and transform them into engines of innovation and entrepreneurship. The system will have a clear seal and will provide a continuous search for better graduate profiles, study plans and learning methods, tools that will provide global solutions with better and more opportunities for the new generations of engineers that the country requires.

In addition, clear quality assurance policies and mechanisms will be strengthened in the training process as a result of the strong commitment of the university and Faculty authorities, which will allow the development of R+ projects in the medium and long term. D+i+e in various engineering disciplines, as well as having a support structure for the development of research and postgraduate studies, in addition to having greater quality scientific productivity and focused competitiveness.

Added to this is the link between academia and industry, the development of R&D&i&e and territoriality, that is, greater availability and use of resources, as well as the strengthening of the productive chain. Now, generating the aforementioned change, as well as the expected results and impacts, requires interaction between those who will benefit directly or indirectly from this project. This is the reason why “FIULS 2030” has the support of an Advisory Council, whose main function is to ensure the quality and relevance of the program in all its stages.

Source: Faculty of Engineering

The FIC project is focused on treating one of the main pathogenic fungi that affect viticulture in the area.

Grapes are one of the main products produced in the Coquimbo Region. According to the Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies (ODEPA), the area has 9,4% of the country's vineyard surface, for this reason, it is essential to promote initiatives that allow the cultivation of this fruit to be more effective, both for producers, exporters and consumers.

It is in this context that Dr. Luis Castillo, researcher at the Department of Biology of the University of La Serena, in collaboration with Dr. Evelyn Silva, researcher and Director of Innovation and Transfer at the Autonomous University of Chile, have recently been awarded an Innovation Fund for Competitiveness (FIC) that the Regional Government grants for development opportunities and improvement in the quality of life of people in the region and that will allow them to finance the project “Genetic mapping of Botrytis cinerea” and thus promote work collaborative research that researchers have been developing for some years.

Botrytis cinerea is a pathogenic fungus that mainly affects Vitis vinifera, that is, table grapes and pisco grapes, at a regional and national level. To stop its spread, chemical substances known as antifungals are used; However, there is evidence that this fungus has developed resistance to applied chemicals. It is in view of the limited information that farmers have regarding this issue that researchers have set themselves the goal of bringing the results of their studies to the community. "The idea is to be able to monitor and give people in the fields the information so that they can take appropriate measures. This will have a direct application to the economy of the region, because farmers are not going to lose so much money using chemicals that they already have." They are not useful for their crops, so they will be able to change strategies,” stressed Dr. Silva.

This project, which will last 2 years, includes among its actions direct work with the community of farmers in the Coquimbo Region. This was highlighted by Dr. Castillo, who assured that "within the project we have training, we will give talks to farmers directly, we will hold an information workshop, regarding the national vision that exists on resistance to antifungals."

It should be noted that not only the producers and exporters of this fruit will benefit from this research, since according to Dr. Silva, "consumers will be able to purchase fruits without so much load of chemical agents and producers will be able to reduce their costs in terms of the use of fungicides, because the project aims to tell them which is the most effective for the strain that is in their field, therefore by reducing the amount of invasive chemicals it will be healthier for everyone and for the soil as well."

The researchers also highlighted the importance of the collaborative work that will be carried out to carry out this research. “There has to be a multidisciplinary team and we have expertise in different areas that really complement each other, that has made our work fruitful,” emphasized Dr. Silva. Likewise, according to Dr. Castillo, advanced human capital is committed at the ULS, and in this case there are 3 master's students who are included in the project. On the other hand, he added that "part of the work we do here and the other we have it done in Santiago, at the Autonomous University, so that the analyzes can be carried out", taking into account that the research will be carried out in conjunction with the Autonomous University based in Santiago, however, the studies will have a direct impact on the region.

Source: VIPULS

The objective was to provide a guide for making good decisions to students interested in pedagogy as a professional career.

With the presence of more than 100 students from the Coquimbo Region, the first meeting “Live La Pedagogía” was held, an activity organized by the Department of Corporate Communications of the University of La Serena and the Choose Educate program.

The activity began with the words of the Rector(s) of the ULS, Dr. Jorge Catalán, who in his speech highlighted the importance of education in social development and highlighted the work carried out by the University, as well as Choose to Educate. “The University of La Serena, as the only state university in the region, is the study house with the most academic offerings within pedagogy careers in the northern macrozone, this responds to the commitment that our institution has with the development of educators of our country,” he stated.

After this greeting, the Coordinator of the Choose Educar Accompaniment Program, María José Osimani, together with the Choose Educar Mathematics teacher, Ignacio Silva, gave the talk: “Everything You Need to Know to Study a Career in Education”, which He gave various advice when choosing which pedagogy to study. In addition, they provided information about the different educational institutions that offer these careers and the particular benefits that the State provides to pedagogy students.

Finally, the outstanding teacher and director of the Edmundo Vidal Cárdena School in Peralillo, Ruperto Pizarro, who is one of the five finalists of the Global Teacher Prize Chile 2018, offered a talk in order to motivate future pedagogy students.

Once this meeting was over, the students were able to visit different stands to learn about the various pedagogy courses taught by the study houses in this region, highlighting the University of La Serena, due to the wide variety of pedagogical areas it teaches to date. .

Male and female students from the different educational establishments assigned to the Program enjoyed the play “A Sea of ​​Questions”, created exclusively for the event by Teatro ECO.

The PACE Program of the University of La Serena, within the framework of its line of work on Secondary Education Preparation (PEM), carried out a play and discussion to share experiences about the process of choosing post-secondary trajectories with more than nine hundred and seventy students accompanied by the Program.

The activity was born in order to show the daily reality that the vast majority of adolescents experience when moving from secondary school to higher education, which is why the PACE ULS Program team made the decision to create a work of theater that will reflect this experience to the students attending the ULS Expo, channeled through the line of Participatory Projects of the Accompaniment in Higher Education (AES) area.

The psychosocial manager of the Program, Barbará Mejías, expressed that “regarding the experiences in the first years of university, and as a result of the reflection in psychoeducational development workshops carried out by the AES area during the 2017 period, the students of the cohort 2017 PACE ULS show the importance of support during the third and fourth year period and how at that time it is crucial to visualize all the possibilities of post-secondary trajectories. They remember their emotional feelings during the period prior to choosing their career, the fears, doubts, dreams and uncertainties that they experienced during that process and the importance of having been able to count on their families and people and/or professionals to accompany them. For this reason, we combine both AES and PEM strategies in the Participatory Projects of our Program called Accompany-Art.”

Meanwhile, the PEM Coordinator, Loreto Garrido, stated that the objective of the work “was to reach the more than 970 boys in a different way and for them to get to know themselves, for the students to realize that they do not They are alone in this situation; that this sea of ​​questions is present in all his classmates and peers from other third and fourth grade educational establishments, the difficulty of facing the future after school; “We wanted to reach them in a different way and provide tools to find answers to these thousands of questions that they have every day and do not dare to ask.”

Adding to the previous one, it was sought that the play would investigate the theme of the process of choosing a post-secondary path, accompanied by a conversation that allowed the interaction and exchange of experiences between students of different careers admitted through the Program and students of PACE educational establishments.

The work was carried out by the ECO Theater Company. The director, actress and playwright, Dayan Guerrero, indicated that “as a company we work on demand theater in this way, focusing on the topics that the institutions need. For me it was a challenge since I started writing the work, it is also going back to that time in which each one is full of doubts, problems and it was nice to be able to empathize and put oneself in the other's shoes, this makes the work more organized , fresh and natural. “It has been intensive work, but very rewarding.”

Regarding the work, the Coquimbo Region PACE Coordinator, Jocelyn Burgos, stated that “the experience has been super powerful, being able to participate in what happened here; Without a doubt, the design of this initiative has been very well thought out, I have seen the faces, the emotions of the students who have been deeply identified when seeing themselves reflected on the stage, many of them experienced and empathized with what was happening. Furthermore, this is what the PACE Program seeks, that the children see what is coming for their lives, their future, that they experience what it means to select a university career with conscience.”

One of the students present at the activity, Ana González, from the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School in La Higuera, expressed: “I found the visit to the University, the work and the conversation exciting, it motivated me to continue studying. The work was a reflection of the day to day that one lives. Personally, I have the support of my parents, however, they motivated me a lot to continue studying and taught me that we should not give up and follow what we want, perseverance is the key. The PACE Program is great, the professionals get involved with us and support us and I like that students from distant communities are taken into account and the Program helps us emerge and be better people.”

After the presentation of the play, there was a discussion in which the actors, AES PACE ULS students, tutors, among others, participated, who shared their experience in the transition from secondary education to higher education.

Source: Press PACE ULS Accompaniment Program