We are getting closer and closer to entering the top ten of prestigious universities in Chile, according to the University Ranking of the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, published in its 19th version this weekend. It judged 41 universities regarding dimensions, such as: Management Quality; Quality of the Academics, Students and Researchers; Perception of Quality in general and Perception of Quality by Study Program.

In general, the Universidad de La Frontera achieved to be in 11th place, climbing one position compared to last year and positioning itself as one of the most important educational establishments in the country. This news also confirms the recent institutional accreditation for six years in all areas by the Chilean National Accreditation Agency CNA.

“We are showing in Temuco, that it is possible to offer education of quality outside of Santiago, our capital. This new result reflects the constant and joint work of the Universidad de La Frontera´s whole university community for the preservation of quality and excellence in all our fields of action. We are convinced that, very soon, we will be one of the 10 most prestigious and important universities in the country in this ranking, which will be made possible thanks to the participation of everyone who is part of this higher education establishment,” Dr. Eduardo Hebel, the rector of the Universidad de La Frontera, said.

The ranking judges dimensions, such as: Perception of Quality – regarding the labor market; Management Quality; Quality of the Students; Quality of the Academics; and Quality of the Researchers. Regarding the sample, the ranking considered the opinions of two thousand professionals in Chile, between October and November.

Among the five dimensions the ranking considers, the dimension Management was the one that improved the most, what can be associated to the 6 years of institutional accreditation. The same thing happened with the dimension Research, which evaluates the productivity and quality of science, based on data obtained by the Ibero-American Ranking of Higher Education Institutions 2018. The UFRO achieved to climb three positions in this category compared to 2017 and is now in 15th place.

Martha Ramírez, the director of Quality and leader of the self-assessment process that supported the institutional accreditation, commented: “It is gratifying to see that the university, as a result of the accreditation of quality, improved its position in this ranking. That has to renew our commitment with continuous improvement.”

The other dimensions do not show significant changes regarding the scores, but regarding the positions. Perception of Quality, for example, maintained its score, but since other universities improved their performance, they had an influence on the position of our institution.

In this regard, the UFRO director of Communications, Carola Espinoza, commented: “This ranking in particular is the one with the highest importance regarding the dimension Perception of Quality. This is why we consider this result as something that nurtures our strategies. This year´s performance consolidates the advances, and challenges us to find ways to keep impacting the reputation of the UFRO positively regarding this particular group of influencers.”