The APPRENDE ULS Program will benefit more than a thousand students of the institution.
 
Establishing and expanding strategies for leveling, accompaniment and monitoring of students who benefit from free first and second year admission to the University of La Serena, contributing to improving academic success and retention, is the main objective of the Education Support Program. Permanence, Performance, Leveling and Comprehensive Development of the Student (APRENDE ULS), which was launched within the framework of the 38th anniversary of the house of higher education.

The Rector, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, stated that “the spirit of this program reflects what we seek as a University, that our students enter higher education and find a place where they feel accompanied, safe and can fulfill their goal of finishing their degrees, since behind every student who drops out, there is a dream of being a professional that is postponed. This program will be an articulating system for all the actions that are carried out on campus and whose objective is this mission, the reduction of the dropout rate of first and second year students.”

Let us remember that the implementation of remedial programs for first-year students has allowed an important achievement of quality at the University, such as the improvement of 5 percentage points in terms of student retention in the first year, between 2011 and 2017 (81 to 86%).

Along these same lines, the Academic Vice-Rector, Dr. Jorge Catalán, pointed out that “this is a project awarded by our institution in the Ministry of Education, which has two axes: the first, the conception and the conviction that the student It is the center of learning; and the second, the comprehensive training of all students who come to our University, in order to train competent and autonomous professionals.”

The Executive Director of the APRENDE PACE ULS Program, Mg Viviana Romero, meanwhile, expressed that this initiative “has to do with an effort that our institution has made, to obtain a program that can articulate the accompaniment and support to our students and their dreams. to finish his professional career.” In addition, she explained that “the support of the program has an academic area based on tutoring by students and support from mentors, academics from our University, as well as psychoeducational support.”

Written by Daniel Aguayo, PACE ULS Program