The items that were evaluated best are Accreditation with 86.2% and Research with 78.4%. Nine UFRO programs are among the top ten in Chile. Nursing and Nutrition are in third place among 34 national universities. These figures made it possible that this institution climbed from place 13 last year to place 11 in the report 2018.

The Universidad de La Frontera climbed from place 13 to 11 according to the report of the América Economía Ranking 2018. Mainly, this achievement is the result of systematic work and the determination this educational institution has in order to keep improving each day.

According to information from the Division of Analysis and Institutional Development (DADI), one of the reasons the UFRO climbed up is that the indicators Teaching Quality and University Life improved. In this regard, the ranking positively takes the areas for sports and physical activity into account, such as sports courts, gyms, athletic tracks, besides of all activities that are linked with sports and the students´ recreation.

The dimensions the Ranking considered are: Teaching Quality, Student Quality, Research, Accreditation, Infrastructure and Efficiency, Internationalization, Inclusion and Diversity, Community Outreach, and University Life.

ACCREDITATION AND RESEARCH

Another important indicator is Accreditation in which the academic offer of this educational institution is among the ones with the highest ratings, as well as the Universidad de Talca and the Universidad de los Andes.

The item Research, although it has had a decrease compared to last year by almost three points, keeps being within the ones with the best average and has an even better score than most of the other top ten universities. The Universidad de La Frontera´s researchers´ work also shows in the large number of WOS publications – a total of 1570 – between 2014 and 2016.

LEADING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

Nursing and Nutrition are in third place out of 34 judged universities, with excellent indicators of seven and six years of accreditation, apart from a strong academic body and an employment rate of 99% in the case of the Nursing program.

RANKING OF THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

The América Economía Ranking analyzed 16 undergraduate programs at 34 universities. The UFRO programs that achieved to be among the top 10 are: Agronomy, Nursing, Civil Industrial Engineering, Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Dentistry, Psychology, Sociology and Civil Electrical Engineering.
Compared to 2017, Agronomy stayed in seventh place, Nursing in third, Medicine climbed from eighth to seventh, Nutrition from fourth to third, Dentistry from sixth to fifth, Psychology from fifth to fourth, Civil Electrical Engineering stayed in seventh place, and Civil Industrial Engineering entered the ranking for the first time in ninth place. Sociology is the only program that descended from sixth to eighth place.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

It is important to note that there are aspects that have to be improved. Mainly, the item Community Outreach, which has the weakest score in the report. According to Dr. Ricardo Herrera, director of DADI, this indicator clearly shows where to put more efforts.

“This is an invitation to non-compliance, to keep working, particularly on the contact and link with the community of Temuco and our region. This is not about working in order to appear in the rankings. It is about knowing with certainty in which field we have to work harder. Simultaneously, we have to keep strengthening research as one of the keys for growth.”

The Psychology and Dentistry programs, both among the top five in relation to the simile at the national level, have a common denominator with a low score: the item Prestige. This item is based on the survey that has been randomly sent to a group of university professors of each institution. The scores on this item are between 10 and 27 points, except for the Sociology program which, although being in the eighth position with respect to the top ten, marks a score of 35.5.

For the purpose of this report, the item Prestige is weighted by 20% and it is of crucial importance that the academics who receive this survey each year answer in a way that evaluates and recognizes the programs by the work that has been done.

Written by: Division of Analysis and Institutional Developments

In 2019, this institution will execute seven projects that will strengthen its international links and joint collaborative work. It is the second year in a row in which the UFRO reaches a leading position in this national competition.

The Universidad de La Frontera celebrates a major success again. As well as in 2017, it is in second place regarding the number of projects and resources it acquired in the latest Competition for the Attraction of International Advanced Human Capital, Modality Short Stays-MEC, by Conicyt.

We are talking about a total of seven approved projects (14% of the total) and an amount that reaches 98 million Chilean pesos (16% of the total). The idea of this competition is to finance short stays abroad (minimum two months and maximum ten months) for scientists of excellence and vast recognition, at accredited regional universities, between March and December of 2019. The aim is to contribute to academic and scientific strengthening.

The approved project proposals will strengthen the partnerships and scientific work of this institution across the borders. Dr. Pamela Leal, director of the International Affairs Office, said: “The projects which will be executed by our researchers will significantly strengthen the internationalization of our university, one of the main aspects we have been working on and which, through the presence and cooperation of well-known and recognized scientists, does not only invigorate the existing partnerships, but also opens new opportunities and networks, apart from contributing to under- and postgraduate research and teaching.”
She also emphasized the excellent result the university obtained. “Again, we are in second place among the institutions which reached the highest number of approved projects.

This is an important success that shows us that we are strongly advancing with our task of expanding our international partnerships, which result in concrete actions of collaboration and partnership. Besides, the number of approved proposals and funding permits us to positively compare ourselves with other institutions in the group of regional universities that are accredited for 6-7 years.”

UFRO PROJECTS

The proposals are divided according to disciplines the OECD consigns and, in the case of the UFRO, these are Agricultural Sciences (4), Earth Science (1), Psychology (1) and Humanities (1).

One of the proposals came from Dr. Maria de la Luz Mora, director of BIOREN-UFRO, called “Role of carbon sequestration in the P priming effect: Bases for intelligent fertilizer design and nutrient recycling”, which contemplates a stay of Dr. Cornelia Rumpel of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Another participant in this project is Dr. Marcela Calabi of BIOREN-UFRO.

“This project is about the implementation of a joint laboratory between both institutions and the consolidation of the cooperation between UFRO and CNRS, allowing a continuous development of projects. Also based on the cooperation development as BIOREN, we want to incorporate ourselves in the international initiative “4 per 1000” launched by France to demonstrate that agricultural soils can play a crucial role for food security and climate change,” Dr. María de la Luz Mora explained.

Another proposal came from Dr. René Montalba, a project called “Resilience and sustainability of agri-food systems: Comparative analysis of the transformation process in Spain and Chile”. His project contemplates the stay of Dr. Gloria Guzmán from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain, with whom he has been working for years on the development of agri-food systems.

“The aim of the visit of Dr. Guzmán is to standardize a joint evaluation methodology for the sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems, based on which we can do an international analysis and a comparison of the results of these evaluations. At the beginning, we are going to compare what happens in the south of Chile and in Spain. At the end of the first term, we will have meetings with colleagues from ten Latin-American countries, in which we will propose to do these evaluations at a sub-continental level,” Dr. Montalba stated.

Dr. Beatriz Vizcarra will execute a project called “Compared analysis of child protection systems: Contributions to the development of a system in Chile based on respect for children´s rights”, that includes the stay of Dr. Mónica López López, a specialist of the University of Groningen, Netherlands, who will stay at the UFRO for three months, from April to May, and in November 2019.

“Dr. López will support the activities of our Master´s Program in Forensic and Legal Psychology, and the undergraduate teaching, and help us to plan a project we want to present to Fondecyt (Chilean National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development). As a university and a country, we also want to join an international network of the Dutch institution, together with other universities in Germany and England, which just finished a comparative study on the child protection systems in their countries,” she commented regarding the collaboration of the specialist, who will also be at the Universidad Católica of Valparaíso, within the framework of this project. She also appreciates the experience of the scientist in this field: “They have been developing methodologies for the evaluation of child protection systems which are fundamental. And that can contribute to the improvement of the systems in our country.”

Dr. Alex Seguel proposed the project “Research Advances in sustainable alternatives for the agricultural production based on the use of bioinoculants and agricultural amendments”, which includes the stay of Dr. Concepción Azcón of the National Research Council (CSIC) in Spain.

“The idea of the stay of Dr. Azcón is the transfer of experience regarding the creation and use of bioinoculants and organic amendments, for under- and postgraduate students, farmers and small producers in the Araukanía Region, as sustainable alternatives for agricultural production, through joint activities between the UFRO, as host institution, and the Universidad Católica and INIA Carillanca in Temuco, as partners. On the other hand, the project seeks to strengthen the network with the Department of Soil Microbiology and Symbiotic Systems of the Zaidín Experimental Station (EEZ), which is part of CSIC-Spain, and to promote outreach activities,” Dr. Seguel specified.

Dr. Yéssica González, an UFRO academic, programmed the visit of Dr. María Eugenia Petit-Brehuilh, a researcher at the Department of History of Latin America at the University of Seville, Spain, within her project called “Power in the margins. Borders, subjects, spaces and territories”, for the second semester of 2019.

“This project responds to the need of amplifying and reformulating some of the conceptual categories based on which the space of the Araukanía Region and several historic events that have taken place in it as a border area and an area where ethnically and culturally different societies are living together from the colonial phase to present have been interpreted,” Dr. González commented, and pointed out that Dr. Petit-Brehuilh´s visit will contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of research on this issue through renewal of theoretical and methodological approaches and the internationalization of links and associative work networks.

The project of Dr. Jacqueline Acuña is called “Exploring the role of fungi in the spread of rhizobacteria in grasslands established in the Chilean Patagonia” and counts with the collaboration of Dr. Lucas Kwick of the Helmholtz-Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Germany. This joint work will allow to specify teaching activities together with the Universidad de Magallanes, which is the counterparty of the initiative.

“We want to determine how bacteria and fungi are helping the exotic species to spread in grasslands of the Chilean Patagonia and to strengthen the academic scientific capacity in the study of this fungi-bacteria interrelation. The project also strengthens the Network for Extreme Environments we have between the UFRO, Universidad de Antofagasta and the Universidad de Magallanes”, Dr. Acuña stated.

Dr. Francisco Matus leads the project “Influence of pedogenic processes on root carbon and the nutrient cycle in volcanic soils in the south of Chile”, with the collaboration of Dr. Yakov Kuzyakov of the Agrarian and Technology Institute at RUDN University in Moscow, Russia.

“The objective of the project is to study the mechanistic processes that attach to the flows of Carbon and other nutrients (Nitrogen and Phosphorus) in volcanic soils considering their specific mineralogy and agricultural management. The flows of C, N and P in volcanic soils in the south of Chile will be quantified, specifically the processes that regulate the plant-soil interactions of microorganisms for C, N and P and other nutrients,” he said, and added that the scientist will actively participate in this study that covers the analyses of stable and radioactive isotopes. Through his visit in Chile, the colleagues of his research team will support the marking campaigns, as well as the different stages of sample preparation in the framework of the FONDECYT project No. 1170119, INACH RT 23_27, the Network for Extreme Environment Research (NEXER), and the EarthShape Project that is led by Dr. Kuzyakov.

Written by: Jassna Sepúlveda B. /Sergio Valenzuela S.
Communications Office

Indigenous rights, the relation between the extractive industry and the loss of a national identity, psychology as an agent of change in disaster situations – these were some of the issues presented in the International Pre-conference of Community Psychology at the Universidad de La Frontera.

Five renowned professionals were present in this event, which was the prelude for the seventh International Conference of Community Psychology in Santiago on October 4th to 7th. Apart from presenting the most recent results of their research work, they contributed to the debate that just started in our region after the launch of the Araukanía Promotion Plan.

The event is the result of the efforts of the Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco Catholic University and University of Santo Tomás and they brought Dr. Terry Mitchell, an academic of the Wilfried Laurier University in Canada, Dr. Brinton Lykes of the Boston College in the USA, Irma Serrano and David Pérez Jiménez from Puerto Rico and the Cuban psychologist Carmen Nora Hernández to the UFRO in order to participate in seminars, workshops, conversations, and visits to the Mapuche Community, between September 29th and October 2nd.

They participated in the practice-based seminar “Social coexistence and human rights: contributions from community psychology”, which was the inaugural event of this Pre-conference of Community Psychology. Dr. Mitchell, who was recently honored for her contribution to the study on indigenous rights in the Canadian context, was one of the speakers and gave an account of the increase in deaths of indigenous leaders while defending their territories. This was one of the conclusions presented at the conference “Indigenous rights and community psychology: Historical traumas and extractive projects”, a topic that, according to Dr. Mireya Palavecinos, director of the UFRO Master´s Program in Community Psychology, “is very important regarding the very contingent facts that take place these days in our country, and especially in our region considering the Araukanía Promotion Plan, which has just been presented and which poses a number of challenges regarding productive issues as well as the relationship with the Mapuche People. Canada is very advanced in this point.”

The series of expositions showed the reality of community psychology as a special discipline in the treatment of social situations that get complex according to the local realities. One of those expositions was about gender-based violence, presented by Dr. Lykes, or the consequences Puerto Rico had to deal with after Hurricane María and that affected its population of almost three million people, or the political reality in Cuba after opening up to the US market.

It was an academic event that brought professionals in social science and community leaders together and that fulfilled the objective of decentralizing the 7th International Conference of Community Psychology. It brought the Chilean Society of Community Psychology and a network of academic teams from 16 Chilean universities, which has been operating in Chile for more than 10 years and includes the Universidad de La Frontera, to our region.

Apart from that, considering that in the 90´s new social problems came up in Chile which challenged psychology, such as discrimination, children´s rights, or policies for people living in extreme poverty, the psychologists started to work in multidisciplinary work teams in programs that permitted them to work in direct contact with the affected families. And, today, they have the UFRO in the south, as a reference for the work with vulnerable sectors and the creation of human capital regarding prevention and the development of public policies which are dealing with these issues.

IncubatecUFRO was recognized as the best in Chile, regarding the sales of its portfolio of entrepreneurs in 2017.

You can find the best business incubator in Chile in the Araucanía Region and it is called IncubatecUFRO. It was recognized by the Production Development Corporation (CORFO), which awarded the incubator and accelerator of the Universidad de La Frontera for being the best in Chile, regarding the sales of its portfolio of entrepreneurs in 2017.

During that year, the portfolio of companies supported by IncubatecUFRO reached a sales total of about 7800 million Chilean pesos, what is above the rest of incubators and accelerators across the country.

“In an ecosystem of entrepreneurship that is growing each day, this acknowledgement is a confirmation of the confidence the different entrepreneurs put into IncubatecUFRO and of the work we have done together in order to make their projects come true and install them as innovative and transforming solutions in Chile and the world,” Claudine Uribe, executive director of IncubatecUFRO, commented.

“This award, given by CORFO, is the result of the work we have been doing with the entrepreneurs in this region and the rest of Chile during the last 17 years, which we are very proud of,” Gerardo Lagos, the Innovation Manager of IncubatecUFRO, added.

IncubatecUFRO was also recognized at the World Incubation Summit of UBI Global, this year, as the eighth best incubator worldwide and the best in Latin America in the category World Top Business Accelerator – Linked to University.

Written by: Dirección de Comunicaciones
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