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The executive vice president, Aldo Valle, highlighted that the 30 universities of the Council have promoted a series of measures to give continuity to the training process of the students, "focusing especially on responding to the connectivity needs of those students who they lack such means. For this reason, currently all the actions available to each university are being implemented to advance via remote work and virtual classes ”.
In this CRUCH session, the new Minister of Education, Raúl Figueroa, was present for the first time, who referred to the complexity of the country's health emergency and argued that it will be necessary to reconcile health measures with the subsistence and viability of the higher education system , attending to the needs of the students. The Undersecretary of Higher Education, Juan Eduardo Vargas, also participated.
The country's health emergency, in the context of the pandemic produced by the Coronavirus COVID-19, was the main subject of analysis by the Council of Rectors in its session No. 611, carried out by videoconference on the morning of this Thursday, April 2.
In this regard, the executive vice president of CRUCH, Aldo Valle, said that since the Ministry of Health decreed a health alert for the entire national territory, the universities have adopted measures aimed at controlling the spread and safeguarding the health of the population.
In this sense, to give continuity to the training processes, the 30 CRUCH universities present throughout the national territory, “have promoted a series of measures, focusing especially on responding to the connectivity needs of those students who lack of such media. For this reason, currently all the actions available to each university are being implemented to advance via remote work and virtual classes, taking care of the standards of quality and equity in access and learning results for all and all of our students ”, Aldo Valle explained. Although this situation poses greater challenges in universities in regions whose students come from rural areas or more isolated from the cities, “every effort is being made to solve them”.
Regarding the fulfillment of financial commitments, the universities have also offered additional facilities to those that they regularly grant to their students and their respective families, "according to the needs and conditions that we have always recognized," Valle said.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the CRUCH universities "have made all their resources available to the national emergency, through their laboratories, research centers, experts, professionals from different health areas, thus demonstrating their commitment and collaboration with the health authority ”, said the executive vice president of CRUCH.
Participation of the Minister of Education
In this session of the Council of Rectors, the new Minister of Education (Mineduc), Raúl Figueroa, was present for the first time, who referred to the complexity of the country's health emergency and pointed out that it will have an impact on all sectors, including the world. academic. However, he said that in the first place is the health of Chileans, so in education it will be a period of inevitable sacrifices, which will require making health measures compatible with the subsistence and viability of the education system. higher, attending the needs of the students.
The minister appreciated the support work that the universities have carried out for their own students and that the Mineduc will respect the autonomy of the institutions to design their own strategies.
Finally, he stated that Mineduc has the best will to dialogue and work in coordination with the universities, in order to promote good public policies for the country.
In addition to the minister, the session was attended by the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Juan Eduardo Vargas, who recognized the commitment of the universities through various actions, such as the participation of two rectors of CRUCH -Ignacio Sánchez and Ennio Vivaldi- in the social table due to COVID 19, the availability of facilities and laboratories for sampling, as well as those universities that have shared their resources and greater experience in virtual education.