Dr. Francisca Acevedo will hold the office for the next five years and soon begins with her consular duties.

Her connections, the French nationality and cultural knowledge, as well as her outstanding academic profile were key for Dr. Francisca Acevedo of the Department of Basic Sciences at the Universidad de La Frontera for being appointed honorary consul of France in the Araukanía Region.

The UFRO academic who also is the director of the program in Chemistry and Pharmacy was appointed honorary consul on Friday, July 11th, and will hold the office for the next five years. It is an ad honorem function which Fracisca Acevedo accepts with deep gratitude.

“I accept this office as a representative of France in the Araukanía Region with pride. It is a new challenge which I accept with great responsibility,” she said.
As a child, she has been living with her family in France. This is why French is her mother tongue. When she turned 12, she started living in Chile, always maintaining a permanent connection with her family and friends in France and strengthening the contact through international networks on the university level.

Her duties as the honorary consul of France in the Araukanía Region are to represent the European country in different areas (culture, economics, science, academic field, official ceremonies, etc.) and to facilitate administrative processes between French citizens who are living in or traveling around the region and the French embassy in Chile.

Being more specific, her role is key in the support of the needs of French citizens in this region and in the assistance and guidance regarding different documents, such as passports, IDs, certificates, etc. and in the promotion of cultural and academic activities that could be carried out in the Araukanía Region and are related to French culture.

CONSULAR TASKS

The address and office hours of the French honorary consulate will be published, soon, in order to start with the consular tasks of Dr. Francisca Acevedo.
“I would like to thank the rector Sergio Bravo for his immediate support in this new undertaking, what makes the processes significantly easier in every respect. The support will allow me to fulfill my academic and consular activities in the best way. The new rector, Dr. Eduardo Hebel, has also already expressed his support,” she stated.

Francisca Acevedo added that, in her role as an honorary consul, she will aim to strengthen international networks between France and the Universidad de La Frontera, especially the promotion of cultural and scientific exchange, the creation of agreements and the application for international exchange scholarships and undergraduate and postgraduate student mobility scholarships.

“As an honorary consul I am at the disposal of the Universidad de La Frontera in order to support the different initiatives in the fields of culture, science and academic affairs,” she concluded.

Written by:Sergio Valenzuela
Communications Office

The participants of the English workshops have been awarded in a ceremony.

The Curriculum and Teaching Development Division and the Language Coordination Center (CODI) offered English workshops for UFRO teachers and directors in order to improve their English proficiency at the institutional level.

The closure of the programs “Introduction to English Language”, “Basic English” and “Advanced Conversation” took place at DIFEM (Direction of Comprehensive Training and Employability) auditorium, where the respective certificates for participation and consistency were given to the 24 professionals who participated in the program.

During the ceremony, the vice- rector of Undergraduate Affairs, Ana Moraga, pointed out that the university’s teachers who participated in these training activities for further skills are setting a good example. “When we started to strengthen CODI, we had the great challenge to motivate and convince the students of the importance that the command of a second language such as English, a language that permits to establish links in today´s globalized world, has.”

Therefore she added: “The teachers also play a fundamental role to encourage their students, because when they see the importance their teachers give to the command of a second language, it will have a bigger impact on them and they will be more motivated to learn English,” she said.

The CODI coordinator, Margot Godoy, specified that these workshops have been developed in a participative way. “The UFRO teachers and directors who participated in each level made mayor progress, since they were highly motivated and interested in learning. The command of a language requires permanent training and the idea is that the participants gradually incorporate English literature with the purpose of practicing what they learned in a practical context.”

THE VALUE OF LEARNING

Mabel Schulz, a teacher at the Preclinical Science Department at the Faculty of Medicine, expressed her satisfaction with what she learned in the workshop Introduction to English Language: “The techniques CODI uses are very good because the emphasis was not only on speaking but also on listening, writing and being able to express yourself. It was an entertaining workshop in which our teachers were very encouraging, a fact that helps to lose the fear of speaking.”

Paulina Hofer is an undergraduate teacher at the Faculty of Dentistry and participated in the Advanced Conversation workshop with the aim of increasing her vocabulary and updating her English language skills. She pointed out: “The schedule was a factor that made the participation for teachers easy. It was a dynamic workshop, since our teacher insisted on communicating with everyone and on giving our opinions and our points of view in order to improve our spoken English.”

The director of the Institutional Projects Monitoring Division, César Castillo, participated in the Basic English workshop. He was motivated to learn and is convinced that the English language is a useful tool for his field of performance. “At my workplace, I have to interact more and more frequently with English speaking persons and we have a newly created UFRO Policy of Internationalization, an agreement for the internationalization of our doctorates, and finally, a series of activities that force us to improve our language skills,” he stated.

Written by: Vice-rectorate of Undergraduate Affairs

The training of engineers - this was the central topic during the academic visit of authorities of the Faculty of Engineering and Science of the Universidad de La Frontera in Canada.

The delegation was led by Dr. Rodrigo Navia Diez, the dean of the UFRO Faculty of Engineering and Science. They visited different universities and were able to put into action their plan to gain a deep insight into the Canadian experience regarding the implementation of programs that address design and innovation in their syllabi for their engineering programs, at an early stage.

“We have decided to take a look at Canada, basically, because this is where we want to head with our training in engineering. The Canadian universities train engineers with relevant skills in basic sciences, but also develop the topics design and innovation, beginning in the first years of studies,” Dr. Navia pointed out. He added: “Regarding this aspect, the Canadian universities are recognized for being pioneers.”

At the moment, the UFRO Faculty of Engineering and Science is in a process of curricular innovation and updates, in which three key competencies have been defined for a new profile of the Civil Engineer graduates of the UFRO: design, innovation and social responsibility, while the first two are the most complex ones to address in the curricula.

This is why we want to get to know the successful Canadian experiences in the implementation of their syllabi and methodologies linked to the fields of design and innovation.

“Canada is an example in the training of engineers. On the one hand because of their methodologies that concentrate on the student, their active methodologies which confront the students with actual problems in the field of engineering since the first year of studies, and on the other hand because they are learning basic sciences. We, as a Faculty, need to study successful experiences regarding these topics in order to try to replicate them, in accordance with our reality, in the curricula of our Civil Engineering programs,” the dean specified.

Regarding the observed facts during their trip, Juan Möller, the director of Undergraduate Affairs at this faculty sustained: “Canada – regarding design in engineering – has made some changes in the curricula, the methodologies used in class and the support infrastructure, besides of incorporating a multidisciplinary content since the beginning, working in this field in a different way, what is fundamental in the work performance of an engineer. This is in accordance with the intentions we have, to make a change in the way our engineers are trained, reviewing our methodologies and the curriculum.”

The delegation visited the following Canadian universities on the trip: Toronto, McMaster, Ontario Institute of Technology and University of Guelph. The visits at the last two institutions also focused on partnerships regarding research and development in the fields of materials, mechanics and electronics. Besides, the delegation visited the company Quanser in Toronto, which is a leader in the development of laboratories with active methodologies in the training of engineers. The idea is to advance in joint projects with them.

The next step would be to concrete the visit of academics, the implementation of the corresponding syllabi for the UFRO programs in civil engineering that are associated with the topics design and innovation.

Written by Daphne Bormann
Faculty of Engineering and Science

The visit of the Association at the UFRO Faculty of Dentistry lasted three days, with a tight schedule full of work sessions, conferences and official visits, among others.

Dr. Maria Cristina Manzanares Céspedes, the Secretary General of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), visited the Universidad de La Frontera for a series of activities. Her visit is the start of the preparation for curriculum revision in Dentistry at our university.

The visit of the Association at the UFRO Faculty of Dentistry lasted three days, with a tight schedule full of work sessions, conferences and official visits, among others.

According to the dean of the Faculty, Dr. Ramón Fuentes, it is important to have a reference like the Association for Dental Education in Europe. This is why the university, together with the Chilean Dental Network which is a network of different universities, invited Dr. Manzanares to Chile. This way, her stay at the Universidad de La Frontera was the beginning of the curricular revision in Dentistry.

“The idea is to get an insight into the current dentistry teaching development by the secretary general of the European Association, what gives us clear and specific guidelines for the preparation we have to do this year, in order to being able to start the revision of the curriculum in dentistry next year,” Dr. Fuentes stated.

Therefore, Dr. Manzanares met with the managing team of the Dentistry School and the committee that will be in charge of the curriculum revision. She also visited some of the senior students in their final internship and held a speech about ´The Creation of a Training Program for Dentist Competencies in Europe´, in which she went through the beginnings, processes and the evolution of the work that has been done in this field in the European Community.

Her visit responds to the four objectives of the ADEE: collegiality, cooperation, collaboration and consensus. This way, she is making a big contribution to the work the UFRO Dentistry Program is going to start in 2019.

The director of the UFRO Dentistry School, Mónica Silva, has appreciated the visit and stated that it was productive and profitable. “I think that it could not have been better. She is an excellent academic, very transparent and generous with her knowledge. This opens doors, and regarding any question we have, we can count on her help, orientation and experience; so the visit has been really excellent,” she commented.

After the meetings, Dr. María Cristina Manzanares stated: “The team I met was very dynamic, interested and committed to creating a new curriculum and that is fascinating.”

Besides, she pointed out that in this first meeting, a very interesting dialogue has been created. “It has been an extraordinarily rich conversation, extraordinarily enriching for me and it placed value on the contribution with my personal experience, my academic experience and my experience as Secretary General of ADEE in the process the UFRO is realizing,” she added.

During her visit at our university, she also met with the rector, Sergio Bravo, the elected rector, Dr. Eduardo Hebel, and the vice-rector of Undergraduate Affairs, Ana Moraga.

Apart from that, she also participated as a speaker in the Workshop on Discussion and Dissemination of the Donation of Human Bodies to Universities for Morphology Teaching and Research that has been organized by the Faculty of Dentistry. After her visit at the UFRO, Dr. Manzanares went to Santiago in order to participate in activities together with the Chilean Dental Network.

Written by: Soledad Millapán
Faculty of Dentistry