Austral University of Chile

Last updated
Austral University of Chile
Universidad Austral de Chile
MottoLibertas Capitur
Type Traditional
EstablishedSeptember 7, 1954
Rector Hans Richter Becerra (Actual)
Administrative staff
776
Students17,411 (2020)
Undergraduates 16,931
Postgraduates 480
Address
Avenue Independencia #641
,
Valdivia
,
Los Ríos Region
,
Chile

39°48′26″S73°15′04″W / 39.8073°S 73.2511°W / -39.8073; -73.2511
Website www.uach.cl
Entrance to Austral University of Chile's botanical garden UACh-Jardin botanico-entrada.JPG
Entrance to Austral University of Chile's botanical garden

Austral University of Chile (Spanish : Universidad Austral de Chile or UACh) is a Chilean research university based primarily in Valdivia, with satellite campuses in Puerto Montt and Coyhaique. Founded on September 7, 1954, it is one of the eight original Chilean Traditional Universities. It operates as a nonprofit self-owned corporation under private law, and receives significant state-funding.

Contents

History

Foundation and early years (1942-1968)

In 1942, the Sociedad de Amigos del Arte (Society of friends of art) was formed in the city of Valdivia. Aside from promoting culture, one of the society's main goals was to establish a university in the city. The idea of creating a university was presented to the national congress in the 1950s by the senator for Valdivia, Carlos Acharán Pérez de Arce, who later succeeded in consolidating the project. In a meeting held on 16 February 1954 supporters of installing a university created a directory and proclaimed Eduardo Morales Miranda as president of it. The initial founding depended on donations from private persons including some industrial businessmen. After have been founded by decree on 7 September 1954 the university was inaugurated on 12 March 1955 by president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. The inauguration was also attended by the rectors of the University of Chile and the States Technical University as well as the ambassadors of Venezuela and Argentina and representatives of the Netherlands, Germany and the United States.

The first degree programmes to be taught at the university were fine arts, agronomy, forestry engineering and veterinary medicine, each of which had also its own faculty. [1]

On June 3 of 1968 UACh was granted autonomy from the University of Chile as law 16.848 was enacted. The autonomy did that UACh became allowed to decide its own plans and study programs and put the university out of the tutelage of the University of Chile.

Development (1969-1999)

Picture of one of the "A"-houses of Universidad Austral near Valdivia River in Isla Teja Campus Casas UACh.JPG
Picture of one of the "A"-houses of Universidad Austral near Valdivia River in Isla Teja Campus

During the military regime's privatization of higher education in the 1980s UACh incorporated the successor regional see of Universidad Técnica del Estado, the Instituto Profesional de Valdivia. By doing this, UACh prevented an offshoot university from being created there as it happened around the country with regional sees of major universities. With the incorporation of Instituto Profesional de Valdivia, that corresponds to present day 'Campus Miraflores, UACh started to grant bachelor degrees in engineering and got its Engineering Faculty.

In 1993 the university held the Valdivia International Film Festival for the first time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its cinema Cine Club which has since then developed to one of the most important film festivals in Chile.

Recent history (2000-present)

With the arrival of Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECS) to Valdivia in 2000 the city was further outlined as a research center, as CECS brought expertise on biophysics, molecular physiology, theoretical physics, glaciology and climate change to the city. The arrival of CECS was seen as positive by UACh's administration since CECS research do not overlap UACh's main research areas and, as a scientific research corporation, do not compete in student enrollment. However, in 2007 UACh and CECS got involved in a controversy when the Regional Council of Los Lagos Region granted regional funds that had been put into tender to CECS without attending to the meeting where UACh's and University of Los Lagos joint project was presented. Deputy Gabriel Ascencio (DC) accused Claudio Bunster, director of CECS, of using his personal influence among politicians and the Council of Innovation for Competitiveness (of which he is member of) to gain more resources. [2]

On Monday 3 December 2007 the Emilio Pugín building of the Faculty of Sciences caught fire. The building, located on Teja island Campus housed considerable amounts of chemicals and scientific equipment which could not be saved. Several research projects had to be halted or aborted due to loss of equipment, samples and data. Due to the spreading of toxic smoke the police had to evacuate a total of 10,000 people from Isla Teja. Firefighting companies from the neighboring cities of Osorno, La Unión and Paillaco had to come to assist to control and extinguish the fire. The building hosted the institutes of chemistry, physics, zoology, microbiology and botanics, including some laboratories. The cost of the damage was estimated at 5000 million Chilean pesos (about 10 million US dollars). [3] Finally, 22% of the damage were not covered by the according insurances, but directly financed by the Chilean government. [4]

UACh-Edificio Nahmias y Abedul.JPG
UACh-Serpentina.JPG
Edificio Nahmias (left) and adjacent Serpentina (right) in Uach's Isla Teja campus

On May 13 of 2008 the student federation of UACh decided to go on strike since they considered that a request list sent to the university administration was answered in too loose terms. [5] The strike and occupation of the university by students ended in late June when the rector Victor Cubillos and the directory ceded on several points but was however still heavily criticized both from students and from sectors of the faculty where they considered that he had ceded too much to students. In April 2010 the reconstruction of the Emilio Pugin building of the Sciencie Faculty, started the competitive bidding. And in this year it would start the reconstruction. Cubillos won the 2010 election with 229 votes, 13 less than the prior election. the second term ended in June 2014.

Campus

UACh main campus, Isla Teja Campus, occupies the whole northwest of Isla Teja in Valdivia. Campus Isla Teja is the home of UACh's administration, Cine Club, botanical garden and most faculties. The botanical garden is a recreational area as well as a place of study with a total of around 950 plant species growing in its 12 ha. [6] Most plants in the botanical garden belong to Valdivian temperate rain forest but there are others with exotic origins. The waters of Cau-Cau River that flows through the northern parts of the botanical garden allows a section of wetland plant species included in the garden.

The engineering faculty operates in Campus Miraflores located along Valdivia River south of Valdivia's Plaza de Armas. A third campus exists in Puerto Montt where business administration, speech and language pathology and aquaculture are studied. UACh has several other properties spread through Los Ríos and Los Lagos Region such as Parque Arboretum in northern Isla Teja, the Calfuco field station in the coast near Niebla and the forests of San Pablo de Tregua in the Andean foothills. A much smaller campus known as Campus Patagonia is located in Coyhaique.

Research

Faculty of UACh in the forests of San Pablo de Tregua Sanpablotregua.JPG
Faculty of UACh in the forests of San Pablo de Tregua

UACh is one of the leading universities of Chile in matters of scientific research. It was ranked second only to the University of Chile in scientific research by El Mercurio and was the third university to receive most of government Mecesup research funds in 2008. [7] [8] Some of the fields where UACh scientists have made contributions include:

Scientific journals

The university publishes several scientific journals three of them, Bosque , Archivos de Medicina Veterinaria and Estudios Filológicos are part of ISI's bibliographic database. BOSQUE is published by the Faculty of Forest Science. BOSQUE's first number was published in 1975 and was yearly issued until 1985. From 1985 to 2003 it was issued twice a year and from 2003 on thrice a year. The topics covered in BOSQUE are management and production of forestry resources, wood science and technology, silviculture, forestry ecology, natural resources conservation, and rural development associated with forest ecosystems. Contributions are articles, notes and opinions, both in Spanish and English. BOSQUE became part of ISI's bibliographic database in 2009. [17]

In matters of literature, communication science and linguistics the university has published the journal Documentos Lingüísticos y Literarios (DLL) since 1977. Documentos Lingüísticos y Literarios has two sections, one dedicated to articles and comments on literature, linguistics and communication science and another were original literary pieces are published. DLL is one of the few journals containing native Mapudungun literature and linguistic articles.

Museum network

Universidad Austral de Chile runs through its museology department several museums in Valdivia and southern Chile, including; UACh's Contemporary Art Museum, Philippi Museum on the 19th century exploration and settlement of southern Chile and Maurice van de Maele Museum on history and anthropology. The museology department has collections of indigenous artifacts including early indigenous ceramics as well as Mapuche silverwork and textiles. In addition to this there is a collection of objects from the early human settlement of Monte Verde. Other collections include 19th century clothing and toys and an extensive photographical archive dating back to 1850. [18]

Rankings

Centro de Educacion continua building in downtown Valdivia UACh-Centro de Educacion Continua-noche.JPG
Centro de Educación continua building in downtown Valdivia

In a 2011 university ranking of Quacquarelli Symonds the Austral University of Chile was ranked 30th among Latin American universities, 5th among Chilean universities and second among Chilean universities outside Santiago. [19]

In El Mercurio's 2006 ranking of the "Best Universities in the Country", UACh received the highest score in "teaching quality" of any Chilean university. The same article also listed UACh second only to Universidad de Chile in research quality, and ranked the Valdivia-based university third place overall among Chilean universities. As both universities that earned higher rankings are located in Santiago (U. de Chile and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), UACh thus became the highest ranking university in Chile outside of the nation's capital. [7]

In the most recent Chilean university ranking released by AméricaEconomía magazine, released in 2009, UACh earned an overall ranking of 7th place, and 4th among universities outside Santiago. In the undergraduate ranking, nursing performed best with 3rd place, then medicine and agronomy at 4th place, then law at 7th place, kinesiology at 8th place and Business Administration (Ingeniería Comercial) at 10th place. [20]

In 2006 UACh's medical students got the second highest marks in Chile in the National Medicine Exam after PUC. [21] In 2007, though, UACh medical students dropped down to fifth place, and by 2008 they were down to sixth place. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mapuche language</span> Araucanian language

Mapuche or Mapudungun is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It was formerly known as Araucanian, the name given to the Mapuche by the Spaniards; the Mapuche avoid it as a remnant of Spanish colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huilliche people</span> Ethnic group native to south-central Chile

The Huilliche, Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu and, as the Cunco or Veliche subgroup, the northern half of Chiloé Island. The Huilliche are the principal indigenous people of those regions. According to Ricardo E. Latcham the term Huilliche started to be used in Spanish after the second founding of Valdivia in 1645, adopting the usage of the Mapuches of Araucanía for the southern Mapuche tribes. Huilliche means 'southerners' A genetic study showed significant affinities between Huilliches and indigenous peoples east of the Andes, which suggests but does not prove a partial origin in present-day Argentina.

In Chile, universidades tradicionales refer to universities founded before the 1980s. It usually includes universities derived from traditional ones. A more precise term is Universidades del Consejo de Rectores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valdivia</span> City and Commune in Los Ríos, Chile

Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately 15 km (9 mi) east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla. Since October 2007, Valdivia has been the capital of Los Ríos Region and is also the capital of Valdivia Province. The national census of 2017 recorded the commune of Valdivia as having 166,080 inhabitants (Valdivianos), of whom 150,048 were living in the city. The main economic activities of Valdivia include tourism, wood pulp manufacturing, forestry, metallurgy, and beer production. The city is also the home of the Austral University of Chile, founded in 1954 and the Centro de Estudios Científicos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caucau River</span> River in Chile

Caucau River is minor river in the city of Valdivia, southern Chile. Caucau River acts as a regulating channel between Cruces River and Calle-Calle River forming the Isla Teja island in front of the city centre. It confluence with Calle-Calle River marks the beginning of Valdivia River. '

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zona Sur</span> Natural region of continental Chile

Zona Sur is one of the five natural regions on which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. Its northern border is formed by the Bío-Bío River, which separates it from the Central Chile Zone. The Southern Zone borders the Pacific Ocean to the west, and to the east lies the Andean mountains and Argentina. Its southern border is the Chacao Channel, which forms the boundary with the Austral Zone. While the Chiloé Archipelago belongs geographically to the Austral Zone in terms of culture and history, it lies closer to the Southern Zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teja Island</span>

Teja island is an island in the city of Valdivia, Chile, surrounded by three rivers: Cau-Cau river to the north, Cruces river to the west and Valdivia river to the southeast. Prior to the mid-19th century, the island was known as isla Valenzuela after Francisco de Valenzuela, an encomendero that settled there in 1552. In the second half of the 19th century, the island became known for its roof tile and brick factory, hence the name isla Teja. Initially it was outside the proper city, but with the arrival of German immigrants, many of them settled there, and since 1939, the island is directly connected to downtown Valdivia through the Pedro de Valdivia bridge. A large section of the island's western riverside sank below water level due to the Great Chilean earthquake of 1960.

Claudio Donoso Zegers was a Chilean forester, teacher and professor emeritus at the Austral University of Chile in Valdivia. Donoso was among the first to define the different forest types of Chile when he released the book Tipos forestales de los bosques nativos de Chile in cooperation with CONAF in 1981. This typology became later official by its use in Chilean law. From 1980 to 1981 he was co-editor of Bosque, a forestry scientific journal published by the Austral University of Chile. He retired in 2000 becoming a professor emeritus.

Bosque is a scientific journal published by the Forestry Faculty of the Southern University of Chile. It publishes articles on a wide range of forestry-related topics, primarily on issues that are relevant to Chile, Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere. The published articles include peer-reviewed scientific research papers, items of current interest and opinion pieces. Bosque's first issue was published in 1975 and the journal was issued yearly until 1985. From 1985 to 2003 it was issued twice a year and from 2003 on three times a year. The topics covered in Bosque are management and production of forestry resources, wood science and technology, silviculture, forest ecology, natural resources conservation, and rural development associated with forest ecosystems. The journal publishes research articles, notes and opinions, both in Spanish and English. Bosque was included in the Science Citation Index Expanded in 2009. The journal is also indexed in The Zoological Record.

María Catrileo Chiguailaf de Codo is a native Mapuche linguist and professor of Spanish, English and Mapudungun language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Liendo</span>

José Gregorio Liendo Vera, also known as "Compañero Pepe", "Comandante Pepe" or "Loco Pepe" was a Chilean university student, political leader, and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a Marxist-Leninist and Guevarist urban guerrilla and political movement. He was also a leader and a member of the "Movimiento Campesino Revolucionario" (MCR), the MIR's Front of the Masses among the Chilean peasantry, which participated in the fundos occupations during the government democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende and served with the leftist political coalition Unidad Popular in the early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guido Mutis</span>

Guido Mutis Carrasco was an English literature professor at the Valdivia campus of the Austral University of Chile and director of the Valdivia International Film Festival. During his life he made important contributions to national cinema studies and Chilean literature.

Archivos de Medicina Veterinaria is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the Universidad Austral de Chile. It covers research on a wide range of veterinary medicine and animal welfare topics.

From 1850 to 1875, some 30,000 German immigrants settled in the region around Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue in Southern Chile as part of a state-led colonization scheme. Some of these immigrants had left Europe in the aftermath of the German revolutions of 1848–49. They brought skills and assets as artisans, farmers and merchants to Chile, contributing to the nascent country's economic and industrial development.

Jürgen Henning Illies was a German geologist, an expert in taphrogenesis. Apart from his work on rifts, including the Rhine Rift Valley, he is known for his contributions to Chilean geology.

The Jorge Millas Award was instituted in 1996 to remember the work of the distinguished intellectual Jorge Millas (1917–1982), an academic at the University of Chile and dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Austral University of Chile.

Victorino Ernesto Antilef Ñanco is a Mapuche educator and politician in Chile. In 2021, Antilef was elected to the Chilean Constitutional Convention to represent the Mapuche people, who are entitled to seven reserved seats on the newly formed body.

The Black Beer Festival is a craft beer festival in Valdivia, Southern Chile. The festival was originally organised in the first week of July 2010 by a consortium of the beer companies Calle Calle, Valbier, Cuello Negro and KM 858. The first edition consisted of a business meeting in Hotel Dreams Valdivia followed by a public event at the Isla Teja Campus of the Austral University of Chile. Following its first edition the festival has been held in Parque SAVAL. The festival is sponsored by the National Tourist Service (SERNATUR). The festival has been variously held the first, second or third week of July each year.

References

  1. ↑ Historia de la Universidad Austral de Chile Archived January 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Austral University of Chile
  2. ↑ (in Spanish) "http://www.lannacion.cl" Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine La Nación
  3. ↑ Incendio en Universidad Austral de Chile, El Naveghable
  4. ↑ "Rectoría Universidad Austral de Chile". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  5. ↑ ¡A la calle!: a los estudiantes de la UACh se les acabó la paciencia, El Naveghable
  6. ↑ Jardín Botánico Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine . Revised on April 2, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "El Mercurio Ranking of Universities". Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  8. ↑ Universidad Austral de Chile se adjudica 1.582 millones en el Concurso Mecesup 2008 Universia
  9. ↑ (in Spanish) Pino, Mario and Navarro, Rayen. Geoarqueología del sitio arcaico Chan-Chan 18. Revista Geológica de Chile , 2005.
  10. ↑ Rytkönen, P. Fruits of Capitalism: Modernization of Chilean Agriculture, 1950-2000. Lund Studies in Economic History, 31, p. 39.
  11. ↑ ¿Quiénes somos? Laboratorio de Dendrocronología
  12. ↑ Académica de la Universidad Austral de Chile Recibió Premio Provincial de Conservación de Monumentos Nacionales [ permanent dead link ] Noticias UACh
  13. ↑ María Catrileo's Works on the Tagmemics of Mapuche
  14. ↑ Presentaron Libro sobre Sitio Paleontológico Pilauco Bajo Archived December 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Noticias UACh
  15. ↑ Síndrome pulmonar por Hantavirus Revista Médica de Chile
  16. ↑ Universidad Austral de Chile: Una década de vanguardia académica e investigación Universia
  17. ↑ Celebran indexación de publicación de la Universidad Austral de Chile en ISI Universia
  18. ↑ Dirección Museológica UACh Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  19. ↑ "QS Latin America University Rankings 2022".
  20. ↑ "Ranking 2009 Las mejores universidades de Chile". Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  21. ↑ Medicine exam in Universia.cl Archived September 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ↑ Resultados por escuela 2003-2008 Examen Medico Nacional
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.