A new achievement of the University of La Frontera. This year, our institution is in 12th place of the general classification of the Universities Ranking by the Copesa Group and after 12 years, we were able to improve in the dimension “Quality perceived by employers”.

It is the 18th version of the ranking and the University of La Frontera obtained encouraging results. This consolidates a successful year regarding the factors considered. In the general classification, the UFRO improved one position and is now in 12th place. In the dimension “Quality Perception” the UFRO made a qualitative and quantitative step up, from 20th place in 2016 to 16th place in 2017, and in the dimension “Management” it climbed 5 positions up.

“The results of national and international rankings play an important role in public conversations about the prestige of universities. At the same time, they are a measurement method and source for reputation and because of that, since some years ago, they also are one of the indicators of our strategic plan. In addition, it is also a merit for a regional and state university to achieve better results each time, since Chile is a highly centralized country. Getting results like this in the University Quality Ranking of the Copesa Group motivates us to keep working for excellence, each day and in each of our actions”, the rector, Sergio Bravo, commented.

PERCEIVED QUALITY

One of the institutional achievements in this version of the ranking is the result in the dimension “Perceived Quality” that registers the level of knowledge and estimation of employers regarding the universities. On this occasion, one thousand employers – who directly or indirectly decide in the hiring process of future professionals – have been surveyed. In order to avoid bias, the grade each employer gives to the institution he/she studied at have not been considered.

“Being responsible for the communication strategies of our institution, I am extremely proud of this result. Not only because it confirms the institutional decision to create a Communications Direction and to include it in the directive group of the university, but also because receiving a better perception by employers, creates new opportunities for our graduates and academic staff members. Also because with this task, the institution has a better understanding of the transformative and not only disseminative role of university communication”, the director of Communications, Carola Espinoza, pointed out.

She adds that in 2018 she hopes that the university’s internal strategic communication culture will get strengthened and that every member of the UFRO community will assess his/her role to build a strong reputation. “The function of communication within an organization is to convert the objective quality into perceived and valued quality. This is what pushes the university towards reputation levels of excellence. For being able to achieve this, it is necessary to be, act and communicate with consistency – a task in which each UFRO staff member plays an essential role.”

MANAGEMENT QUALITY

Out of the four factors considered by the ranking in order to assess the dimension “Management Quality”, the factors institutional accreditation and number of full-time students are the ones with a higher preponderance. The other two factors are the retention rate and the timely graduation. Regarding this last factor, the UFRO shows an average of 1,5 semesters of difference between the formal and the actual duration of the programs. This puts the UFRO in second place at the national level.

In the overall ranking, the UFRO is on the ninth place in the dimension “Management Quality”, improving five positions compared to 2016.

“These university rankings fulfill a social function, because they give information to students, academic staff and researchers at the moment of choosing the university they want to go to or they are at. They are also a work tool for the employees in charge of directive management and they act as a barometer of comprehensive quality. From this perspective, they are our feedback for the quality system and help us to develop our internal culture of continuous improvement”, the director of Academic Quality, Dr. Martha Ramirez, pointed out.

According to the University Ranking, this year, 14 institutions maintained their position – three more than in 2016 – 12 universities moved down and 14 climbed up.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CHILEAN UNIVERSITY RANKING

Written by: Dirección de Comunicaciones
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This year, 101 students of national and foreign establishments chose the UFRO for their student mobility stays and 63 students of this institution went to other universities in Chile, America and Europe.

The UFRO students who went to study in other countries during this semester and young foreign students who chose to come to the Araukania Region lived an experience that enriched their professional training and broadened their horizons.

This is why the foreign students, returning students and the ones who are about to travel to other countries came together in the final ceremony of conclusion of this year’s national and international student mobility activities – of the International Affairs Office – in order to give them a space to exchange and share their experiences and what they learned.

Antonia Espinoza, who is in charge of the National and International Student Mobility Unit, presented an overview of the different developed activities and emphasized that the UFRO received 101 students of other national and international establishments during the year and 63 UFRO students went to other Chilean, American and European universities.

On this occasion, the Vice-rectorate of Undergraduate Programs of the UFRO, Ana Moraga, pointed out that the student mobility opens opportunities to learn and grow personally. “We hope your stay at our university met your expectations, not only with regard to the curricular activities of the study program you signed up for, but also to the culture of our country and the networks and friendships you created, and we hope that you will remember us as a university that is committed to education and the good life quality of our students”, she said.

MOBILITY THAT BROADENS HORIZONS

	Luis Andrés Salazar University of Girona, Spain “I wanted to study in another country, and outside of Europe, Chile is the only country that has an agreement with my university. Studying nursing at the UFRO has been the experience of my life, in personal as well as professional aspects. Although the study program is the same, the methods are different here in Chile. Therefore, I learned a lot. Personally, it really helped me grow as a friend and classmate. I will take the warmth of the people with me, because it is very important for someone who comes from another country to have the support I found here.
	Lisette Nilsson Social Work “I went on an exchange in Bilbao at the University of Deusto. I went with a scholarship for outstanding performance in Social Science and there, I was able to take some classes that can be validated here. It was a personally and academically enriching experience, since I got to know new people, a new culture and got to travel. The opportunity exists for everyone at university and I hope that more students will be able to live an experience like this.”
	Georgina Roig University of Girona, Spain “I study nursing and it has been a good experience to come to the UFRO. These months, I have been doing an internship at the regional hospital. It makes you grow as a person, because you meet a lot of people and live in a different culture. And also in the hospital everything is different in the way things are done, for example, they do a comprehensive evaluation of the patient, so you learn and can practice right there. I totally recommend this experience.”
	Sebastián Silva Psychology “I went to the University of Granada, in Spain, and it is an experience that marked a change in my biography. It is gratifying, you can broaden your horizons, not only in the geographic sense, but also in the limits our personal stories impose sometimes. A student mobility experience can change our minds through the intensity with which one goes. That makes you grow.”
	José Antonio Jiménez Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico “I took several classes in the field of engineering. It has been great and enriching to be here, learn so much and get to know new people and places. When the possibility to come to Latin America opened up, I thought: “I´ll see what happens”. But being here exceeds my expectations. It has been a good experience and a pleasant stay, especially with the sponsors who made us feel like home.”
	Bastian Henríquez Civil Engineering “I went to the University of Hannover in Germany for a year with a DAAD scholarship. You see a lot of new things and are constantly learning and enjoying the experience at the university as well as culturally. This scholarship helped me to open my mind and think that you have to try to reach each of your goals. Immediately, you start thinking about postgraduate or other studies. And it is not an impediment if you come from a regional place.”

For the first time, the UFRO accomplished to be in Group 4 of complex universities and is ranked in fourth place of this category.

The University of La Frontera again achieved to be ranked in a highly important ranking in Chile. According to the Ranking of Quality of the Chilean Universities 2017, prepared by the Advanced Studies Group (GEA) Universitas and El Mercurio, for the first time, the UFRO enters Group 4 of Universities of Research and Doctoral Programs.

“We are finishing this year with important institutional achievements that permit us to give an account of our management which is inspired by the constant improvement of quality standards and the increase in research and scientific productivity, which without a doubt reflects our performance, our management skills and the strengthening of leadership in the south of Chile”, the rector Sergio Bravo stated.

This new list only includes universities that do research. They are situated in Group 3 or 4 and ranked by four indicators: publications per academic staff member (20%), citations per publication (30%), percentage of approved Fondecyt Projects (25%) and allocated Fondecyt funds per academic staff member (25%).

With this consideration, the used indicators measure the scientific productivity, the perception of quality and relevance, and the publications and research projects of an institution made by its academic peers. The University of La Frontera is ranked in fourth place and stands out for the quantity of research funds per academic staff member.

The ranking places this institution in Group 4 of Universities of Research and Doctoral Programs and in sixth place among the nine institutions of higher education. The composition of this group – that considers the establishments which offer seven or more doctoral programs in three or more different thematic fields – had not changed since this study parted in 2012. It is a milestone that new universities entered the ranking, what makes the high position of the University of La Frontera even more relevant.

Another important step for the UFRO can be noted in the general ranking 2017, in which our institution climbed from ninth to eighth place at the national level, after showing remarkable indicators during the past twelve months in “student quality”, “academic staff members”, “training processes” and “institutional management”.

GEA Universitas pointed the contrasting academic growth rhythm out that some state universities achieve. Among them is the UFRO, with consideration of its precarious beginning and bureaucratic obstacles, which did not slow down its development and progress.

UFRO in Group 4

It is a major accomplishment for the University of La Frontera to enter Group 4, the group of “Universities of Research and Doctoral Programs”, what is a notable step for a young institution like ours. “The results show an enormous progress in the capacity to do research of the newest universities created after 1980”, El Mercurio quotes.

Teachers of the Department of Basic Science of the UFRO Faculty of Medicine participated in the Histology Congress in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and in a business meeting and an Anatomy and Experimental Biostructure Congress in Goiania, Brazil, at the beginning of November.

After the meetings, the Department of Basic Science of the Universidad de La Frontera and the Department of Morphology of the Federal University of Goias (UFG) strengthened their International Cooperation Agreement, which is being processed by the International Affairs Office of the UFRO and the Cultural and Scientific Relations Office of the UFG.

The organizers of these activities were the director of the UFRO Basic Science Department, Dr. Marco Paredes, and the director of the UFG Morphology Department, Dr. Paulo Cesar Moreira, in cooperation with UFRO scholars, Fernando Matamala, Enrique Olave, Ricardo Cornejo and Jorge Henríquez. It is worth mentioning that the work presented by the UFRO member, Dr. Enrique Olave, in the meeting in Brazil was awarded.

VISITORS

“In both meetings, we wanted to create links of cooperation, integration and collaboration. In Spain, we achieved to position our concept of experimental biostructure, which is a research line that we are developing with researchers in morphology and cellular and molecular biologists. We made contact with teachers of the Autonomous University of Madrid and Brazil who are going to visit Temuco in January 2018”, Paredes explained.

The Federal University of Goias is a public university in Goiania, the capital of the Goias State in Brazil. It is the biggest university of that state, has about 23 thousand undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students, more than 30 doctoral programs in different areas of knowledge and more than 60 master´s programs.

At the moment, there are no international agreements between the University of La Frontera and the Federal University of Goias. This is the first initiative in this area and does not interfere with other current cooperation initiatives with other universities.

“We benefit from this agreement because it permits us to resolve some historical problems we had in the field of human anatomy, for example the access to bodies which are difficult to get in Chile. In this context, we could make a body donation agreement with the Brazilians, since they do not have this problem in Brazil”, added Paredes.

SCOPES

But the agreement also permits to advance when it comes to body preservation techniques. “We are using body preservation techniques that are not used anymore in the rest of the world. They are fixed in formalin and that generates toxicity for the person who is in contact with it (teachers, students, technicians). But in Brazil, they use techniques that are less toxic: the bodies are glycerinated and they will show us this technique and discuss the possibility of changing to this technique next year during the second semester.”

The agreement with the Brazilian university covers the areas of technical exchange (the management of dead bodies), the possibility to create a postgraduate program in binational experimental biostructure, the exchange of undergraduate and postgraduate experiences and research

“It is a big step for our Department to have the possibility to create new cooperations with the Brazilian and the Spanish university, since this will generate an increase the productivity and quality of our scientific publications through the inclusion of joint research lines. Our development plan considers the physical space we have, to aim at experimental biostructure and agreements for the development of young people and postdoctoral students that are related to this topic”, Dr. Marco Paredes concluded.