• The University went up in this international survey for the fifth year in a row and today it is included in the 461-470 rank of the best universities worldwide. In Chile, it keeps the third position, following Universidad Católica and Universidad de Chile.

The well-known QS World University Rankings delivered the results from the 800 most prestigious universities of the world- out of almost three thousand universities surveyed- and Universidad de Santiago de Chile has shown a sustained and stable rise, moving up to the 461-470 rank, being again in the third place nationwide.

Last year, Universidad de Santiago was in the 451 – 500 rank. It has shown a sustained improvement in the past five years, establishing itself as the second state university in Chile, following Universidad de Chile (ranked 225th) and among the best 470 universities of the world.

According to the University’s President, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, this is “great news” for the University as it is a proof “of the quality of what we are doing.” He explained that the improvement in the institution’s indicators, in relation to specialized publications, hiring new professors with graduate degrees and the improvement in the relationship with society, account for this progress.

Though President Zolezzi said he was satisfied with this progress, he made clear that it is necessary to double the institution’s efforts, as he believes that “we have the competences required to continue improving our current position.”

According to this university ranking, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States, kept the first place, followed by Harvard University, in the 2nd place, and University of Cambridge, in the 3rd place. In Latin America, the first universities mentioned were Universidade de Sao Paulo (ranked 127th), Universidad Autónoma de México (163th) and Universidad Católica de Chile (166th).

To elaborate this ranking, QS considers the quality of teaching, research, the institution’s reputation in the business world and its internationalization level.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The National Accreditation Commission (CNA, in Spanish), informed that Universidad de Santiago was accredited in the compulsory and optional areas, more precisely, Undergraduate Teaching, Institutional Management, Graduate Teaching, Research, and Outreach and Community Engagement, until October 1st, 2020.
• Before this positive result, the highest authority of the University, Dr. Juan Manuel Zolezzi, expressed his gratitude to the community “for the work done by everyone at the University; we expect to continue making progress in the challenges that we have set ourselves.”
• President Zolezzi highlighted that this is an important recognition for our institution, considering that the CNA has more stringent requirements after the widely known criticism that it received.

On September 24th, after 18:00 h, Paula Beale, the Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Commission, called the University President Juan Manuel Zolezzi, who was in Temuco participating in the monthly meeting of the Cruch (the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities), to officially inform him that Universidad de Santiago de Chile was accredited by the agency for the next 6 years.

President Zolezzi said that “this is good news for the University, as it allows us to work tranquilly until 2020 and this is only due to the work done by all the community, on a responsible and sustained basis.”

He also stressed that “it is necessary to consider that 6 years ago the CNA was not the same agency in terms of strictness.”

Our University was accredited in the two compulsory areas (Undergraduate Teaching and Institutional Management) and in the three optional areas (Graduate Teaching, Research, and Outreach and Community Engagement). According to President Zolezzi, this means that “the CNA is giving us a seal of quality and guarantee that will allow our students to be sure that our University will not be in risk of losing the state funding or support."

Besides, he said that with this result, the University starts a new process aimed at strengthening all the work done in the past few years, particularly regarding the “special dedication and commitment to the most vulnerable students that make this recognition much more deserved.”

Finally, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi, in a conversation with Radio Universidad de Santiago, made public his special gratitude to “all the community for the work done; for what we have done together for the University; we expect to continue making progress in the challenges that we have set ourselves.”

With this result, Universidad de Santiago becomes the first University in the country to be certified until 2020 and one of the 10 institutions to be accredited in all areas.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Engineer Eduardo Morales Santos (1936-2014) leaves his imprint as a great humanist and advocate of public education. With his characteristic vision of future, he promoted the opening of programs like Medicine, Journalism, Psychology and Architecture, as well as several projects to transform Universidad de Santiago in an institution of excellence.
• On behalf of the University community, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi expressed his “deep regret” at the loss of “someone who really loved this institution” and his gratitude for “the big contribution that Eduardo Morales made to our University.”

Eduardo Morales Santos (1936-2014) was much more than an electrical civil engineer, former professor and superior counselor to Universidad Católica, Universidad Técnica del Estado and Universidad de Santiago. And he was much more than the President of Universidad de Santiago for two consecutive terms. He was a great humanist.

He became part of the institutional history as he was the first University President elected after the return of democracy, when he took over 24 years ago, on August 17th, 1990.

Since he arrived in the Presidency of Universidad de Santiago, he set as an immediate goal the transformation of this university in a complex and complete institution. Just like he said at that time, the University had to be transformed in a multidimensional institution.

He was studious, committed and had a vision of future; he planned a world-class university and to achieve this goal it was necessary to open it and make it more complex. Therefore, during the first two years of his first term, he presented a variety of possibilities to allow Universidad de Santiago to develop in fundamental fields like engineering (without leaving aside the institution’s historical tradition); education; medical sciences; sciences in all their complexity; and social sciences and humanities.
The challenge was huge, but Eduardo Morales accepted it. After his first three years in the Presidency, new programs and institutes were opened and the organizational structure was modified. Between 1992 and 1993 the Center of Research in Creativity and Higher Education (CICES); the Institute for Advanced Studies (IDEA); the Faculty of Medical Sciences with its Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Obstetrics and Puericulture; the School of Journalism; the School of Architecture; the School of Psychology; the Technological Faculty; the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology; the Center for Bioethics and Public Health program; the Comenius program and the Sello Editorial university press, started their activities,
 
With a new organizational structure, the University took charge of the country’s demands and offered 16 new programs. In his own words, it was “a big step”, especially at producing new knowledge for areas important to the country, such as humanities, social sciences and medical sciences. Indeed, he said that he had recently presented a project to open the law school in our University, an idea that was eventually rejected by the Academic Council and the Board of Directors.

He did not forget graduate programs and during his two terms seven master’s programs were opened: Master´s in Telecommunications; Master´s in Informatics Engineering; Master´s in Industrial Engineering; Master´s in Tax Management and Planning; Master´s in Financial Economics; Master´s in Public Management; and Master’s in Administration and Human Resources Management. Also the following doctoral programs were started: PhD in Engineering Sciences with a Major in Automation; PhD in Engineering Sciences with a Major in Materials Science; PhD in American Studies, and the PhD in Sciences with a Major in Physics.

“Today, Universidad de Santiago stands like a more complex and complete institution with the creation of the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Schools of Journalism, Psychology and Architecture. We are a Class- A university, according to the American ranking, which are the institutions with the highest level of development,” he said then, reassuring the work he had done since 1990 for two terms.

Reconciliation

Eduardo Morales was elected the University President at a very difficult political moment. He was the first University President in democracy and the first in taking a decisive step at establishing the UTE-Usach University Reconciliation Commission, which final report stated that, between September 1973 and March 1990, there were 88 people executed or detained/disappeared for political reasons.

This process concluded with a big act of redress on December 04th, 1991, when the families of the dictatorship victims of our campus received the certificates that recognized their relatives as students of our University.

First steps for inclusion

Inclusion, the imprint of Universidad de Santiago, started during Eduardo Morales’ Presidency. In 1992 the University opened its doors to talented students from public municipality-administered schools, giving a 5% of the Academic Aptitude Test (PAA, in Spanish) score to those students who were among the best of their class.

The University continued with this system for over 10 years until the Cruch (Council of University Presidents of Chile) forced it to finish it. Today, a similar mechanism has become a public policy through the class ranking; more than two decades ago it was just a quixotic act.

Eduardo Morales dared to dream big and said that we had to think of the University that we wanted in the long term. “By 2050, Universidad de Santiago should be among the 100 best universities of the world,” he said in 2012.

That was him: He imagined and dreamt the University as a big one, because he trusted the talents, energy and commitment of everyone who is part of this institution.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

Watch the interview that Eduardo Morales gave to the Department of Communications for the 20th anniversary of the Faculty of Medical Sciences

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• Universidad de Santiago is in the third place nationwide (among thirty in the list, leaving U. de Concepción behind in the 4^th place. Our university is in the 13^th place in Latin America, where the best-ranked institutions are Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Eight of the top ten international universities in this ranking have strong state government support for their research and teaching tasks.

Universidad de Santiago de Chile (Universidad de Santiago) is in the 13^th place in Latin America  in the 2013 QS Top Universities Ranking  (Latin America University), an international measurement of high prestige.

Compared to others, our university has been  placed under Pontificia Universidad Católica, which ranks 2^nd  in the Latin American ranking, and  Universidad de  Chile (which went down one spot from the 4^th  to the 5^th place), and two places higher than Universidad de Concepción, which was in the 9^th place, in the last ranking, and in the 15^th place  now.

Under U. Concepcion, we can find:  Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, ranked 36th, Universidad Austral de Chile (39^th ), Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria (40^th ) , and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez , the first national private university in the 45^th place.

As reported by QS, Chile ranked 30th among the top 300 schools in the region.

The ranking, which is led -as in 2012- by  Universidad de Sao Paulo, Brazil, showed a "relative stability", as reported by QS,  in London.

According to the analysis of those in charge of this international ranking, there was a "slight" performance drop in the case of the Chilean state universities, as a result of the 2011 and 2012 student demonstrations, which probably meant a relative decline in relation to the private universities positions which went up in the ranking.

The QS TOP University Ranking Latin America, ranks the top 300 institutions in the region using seven objective indicators, which include: research, graduate employability, teaching resources and web presence, among others.

• University community and public authorities witnessed the opening of the envelopes containing the backgrounds of the candidates who participated in the call to cover 40 vacancies made by the U. of Santiago, on December 3^rd.

On Friday 4^th , the public opening of envelopes containing the resumes  of more than 240 applicants for 40 positions was held in the Salón de Honor. This was another step in the national and international teachers’ application process, designed to cover this number of vacancies for the seven Faculties of the U. Santiago.

The event was chaired by Juan Manuel Zolezzi the University President. Some other authorities attending this meeting were:  Fernanda Kri, Academic Vice President, Dr. Oscar Bustos, Vice President for Research and Development and the lawyer Gustavo Robles, the General Secretary, who also served as Attesting Minister.

The deans, department heads, members of the academic units involved, and members of the university community, who wanted to follow this public and transparent process in detail, were also present.

The application remained in force during December and there were candidates for all the positions offered.

"Today is an important day because this is the continuation of an initiative that began in 2008 and it involves the incorporation of top-level academics to our university", president Zolezzi said.

The rules stipulate that those selected should teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and participate in current research projects and publications. They must also develop technical assistance, outreach and engagement and contribute to the university management, the continuous teaching improvement processes, the accreditation processes of careers, and syllabus revision, among other tasks.

If there are no candidates who meet the requirements for each position, the vacancy will be declared void.

The process also includes the job candidates’ psychological evaluation. This stage will be crucial and exclusive. "Those who do not comply with the rules and the spirit which the University seeks, will not continue in the process,” the president warned.

• Forty vacancies are offered by this State University. The applicants will integrate with the academic staff of various academic units. "They must have publications, and highly productive projects" Juan Manuel Zolezzi, president of the University, said.

The application starts on December 3 and finishes on December 28. The aim is to fill forty vacancies for various careers in the different Faculties of the Institution. The objective is to attract the best graduate academics and complete the renewal of the academic staff.

 Those selected should teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, participate in research projects and technical assistance. In addition, they must participate in the University management and contribute to the continuous teaching improvement processes, careers accreditation, and syllabus revision, among others.

 This is stated in the rules of the application call which has been the fourth call made in the last six years (two massive and two in the Department of Education). According to the president of the U. Santiago, "these calls are part of the policies of this presidency.  That’s why we encouraged a retirement incentive law and followed the necessary steps so that this renewal could be produced."

 The highest authority of the University, explained that the academic application call was scheduled to take place at this time. "We proposed a plan that included several stages: academic restructuring, organizational restructuring of the management team, a restructuring of the academic organic system – a discussion that we’ll begin with the Academic Council- and the recruitment of academics with doctoral degrees, publications, and highly productive projects.”

 The submission process ends on December 28, at 5:00 p.m, “and the new teachers can start working at the University in March," Zolezzi explained. 

Impact on quality

The U. Santiago president said he was confident that this faculty renewal will have a significant impact on institutional accreditation, because it has already been well regarded by peer evaluation people, he remarked.

Furthermore, it will impact fundamentally on the students’ perception. "They see that the U. Santiago is proposing something different to giving cars, chocolates or I Pads. We offer them the certainty of improving our faculty, in quantity and quality,” the authority said.

Finally, president Zolezzi assured that the fact of having a good faculty is the solution to the problem of quality in higher education. “I have always had this conviction and that’s why this presidency has struggled for achieving this improvement."

The academic application call will convoke national and foreign doctors and the rules can be found in www.udesantiago.cl.

• According to this prestigious international survey that includes more than 4,000 universities, our university is the third best higher education institution in Chile. In South America, it is in the 14^th place, just like in 2015, ahead of Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad de Concepción and Universidad Diego Portales, among others. Data provided by the survey show that our university stands out in subjects like Education and Training, English Language and Literature, and Mathematics.

The QS World University Rankings 2016 included Universidad de Santiago de Chile in the 451-460 rank, ahead of New York University (USA), University of Lisbon (Portugal), Michigan Technological University (USA), Bielefeld University (Germany) and the University of Houston (USA), among others.

According to the survey that includes more than 4,000 higher education institutions worldwide, our university kept the third place nationwide, just like in 2015, after Universidad Católica de Chile (170) and Universidad de Chile (209).

Universidad de Santiago was also ranked ahead of other Chilean institutions like Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad de Concepción and Universidad Diego Portales, among others.

The well-known ranking states that Universidad the Santiago particularly stands out in English Language and Literature, a subject in which it is featured in the 251-300 rank, and also in Mathematics (301-350).

Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) led the South American ranking, followed by Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) and Universidad Católica de Chile. Our university kept the 14^th place in the region, just like in 2015.

The QS University Rankings survey 42 subjects and other indicators like academic and employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio, citations per faculty and others. On this occasion, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, was ranked the best higher education institution worldwide.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Students with unemployed parents, students from low income households, single mothers or students who have to work to support their families: this is the situation of more than 2,300 youngsters who entered Universidad de Santiago this year, thanks to the tuition-free education program enacted by the Government. All of them have something in common: they had lost all hope of pursuing higher education.

This important benefit bridges gaps and opens new paths to inclusion and promotes equity and social mobility, confirming that education is a right and not a consumer good.

“As a mother, I thought I had to quit my future, because you cannot afford a degree when you are paid the minimum wage. My parents could not help me either. This is as a godsend, because the possibility of studying at no cost was just a beautiful aspiration,” Eillene Zúñiga, a student at the Computing and Informatics Engineering program, said.

“I come from another university and this is an incentive to complete my program. I am being provided with the tools I require to focus on studying,” Gustavo Hurtado, a student at the Informatics Civil Engineering program, said.

“It is important to us to have access to tuition-free education, without grants or complementary loans, because you start feeling that education- although the benefit is still  for some students- is for us, that it is not a business for which we have to pay millions,” Catalina Yáñez, another student at the Informatics Civil Engineering program, said.

For his part, Alejandro Marín says that his father is currently unemployed, so he could not think of any possibility of entering the university. “This will help me to focus on studying and my only goal will be to complete the Publicity program,” he said.

Finally, Alejandra Gallardo’s case is not different from the ones above. She is the first person of her family to enter higher education. “I am very happy. I have never thought of it, as my mother works at a fruit and vegetable market. She considers attending the Building Technology program a “big challenge”.

Thanks to the tuition-free education program enacted by the Government, they have now the possibility of pursuing higher education.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, in his traditional statement to the University Community, asked everyone to give support to the new 3,900 students that entered Universidad de Santiago this year. Our institution has a 166-year history in training professionals and contributing to the development of the country and the world.

Dr Zolezzi stressed that the beginning of this academic year has a very special meaning, because a large number of our new students have benefited from tuition-free higher education.

He said that this goal had been yearned for years and has been achieved after “a long and hard road travelled”. 

He also mentioned the importance of the Chilean education reform as a milestone for the country.

The statement

Besides greeting the university community at the beginning of this academic year, he invited the authorities, academics, professionals and administrative staff “to make the new 3,900 students feel welcomed in these classrooms for they entrusted their professional and personal development to us. With big efforts, they have entered higher education and they have chosen our university for its tradition, quality and prestige. Our mission is to show them that they made the right decision.”

“This academic year has a special meaning to me and to everyone in this institution, as a significant number of these students have benefited from tuition-free education. It is the beginning of a goal that had been yearned for years and has been achieved after a long and hard hard road travelled,” he said. 

He asked senior students to support new students by helping them and answering to their questions, so that this experience turns a happy chapter of their life.

“Undoubtedly, this will be a fundamental year for the education reform. We expect it to be ready and implemented this year and we hope it becomes a real tool that contributes to people’s dignity. It should provide free and quality education for all talented youngsters as a right guaranteed by the Chilean State,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In the release of September 15^th, the well-known QS World University Rankings show that Universidad de Santiago de Chile has consolidated its position as the third best university of the country.

The prestigious QS World University Rankings that evaluate the 900 best universities worldwide released the 2015-2016 report on September 15^th. In this release, Universidad de Santiago de Chile keeps the position that it reached last year and consolidates its third place nationwide, behind Universidad Católica De Chile and Universidad de Chile, but above Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Universidad de Concepción, among others.

Universidad de Santiago, led by Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, keeps in the 451-460 rank of the QS World University Rankings. The survey highlighted some aspects of Universidad de Santiago, a public and state higher education institution, like Employer Reputation that ranked the 187^th place in the overall world ranking, and Academic Reputation, that ranked the 220^th place in the overall world ranking.

In South America, Universidad de Buenos Aires ranked the first place. It climbed 74 places in comparison to the previous survey and it is now in the 124^th position in the overall world ranking. In this regional sub division, Universidad de Santiago de Chile ranked the 14^th place.

Translated by Marcela Contreras