New directions with a global focus for our community

Student & Scholar Services

“Those who decide to undertake a mobility program are potential leaders of global challenges. In this context, Student & Scholar Services are a fundamental axis strengthening and encouraging this impetus for internationalization for all levels of our university", says Julio Gulín, International Student & Scholar Services Coordinator.

The purpose of the Student & Scholar Services division is to ensure the accompaniment of both domestic and international undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, and staff members who decide to complete international mobility in Chile or abroad. The team is composed of four members led by Julio Gulin, and each of them is in charge of supporting different audiences of the community.

This division is in charge of sending the information relevant to visa procedures, providing advice and support to the UC community to improve their experience in Chile and abroad.

In addition to this, the Student & Scholar Services provide logistical support for both university insertion and the culture of our country. Each semester, international students and scholars are invited to participate in welcome activities which include a special reception for the 'newbies', the welcome day, campus tours, among others.

The key to this initiative is "to provide professional, effective and warm support, thus contributing to improving the international experience", comments Maribel Flórez Director of Global Education.

Along with this work, the Student & Scholar Services promotes language exchange programs such as Tandem UC Chile. This initiative focuses on deepening previous knowledge of a language through conversation and practice between university students and foreign students who carry out bilateral exchange in our university.

In addition to this program, we started the online pilot Talk2Me, finished this month, which was carried out together with the resident university, The George Washington University, in which 25 students were from Chile and another 25 from the United States. They were arranged in pairs to talk and practice both English and Spanish.

There is also the "MAI BUDDY Program", a mentoring program, which seeks to build links between peers, allowing the exchange student to feel part of the UC Chile community.

In March 2021, the international welcome ceremony was held for the more than 50 international students who are undertaking their study programs both online and face-to-face during this semester.

The event is part of the traditional welcome and orientation ceremony for all international students who decided to live their mobility experience in our university.

This activity was developed entirely online, via streaming. In addition to providing information about the university and Chile, there were two keynote speakers:

• Alejandra Ovalle, UC Law academic, who talked about the constituent process that we are experiencing as a country,
• María José Navia, a writer and academic from Letras UC, who talked about creative writing and how to apply their international experience.

Internationalization at Home

“We want to avoid the thinking that you can only internationalize if you if you travel abroad. The idea is to look at it in another way: internationalization can reach you without having to leave your local context", explains Florencia Roncone, Coordinator of Internationalization at Home.

Internationalization at Home has the challenge of ensuring the development of both curricular and extracurricular activities with a global focus. This means that all members of the university can access alternatives available that have a global, transversal, and inclusive impact.

To achieve this work, Internationalization at Home ensures the creation of initiatives allowing the acquisition of global and transversal competencies to graduate profiles and UC Chile educational projects.

It is expected that Internationalization at Home will expand the possibilities that our UC Chile Community has to access this type of initiative, and that they are not limited only to carrying out a bilateral exchange.

In the Curricular field, Internationalization at Home seeks to create initiatives that complement student's study programs and the graduation profile with global training that responds to current challenges. It also enhances international teaching through collaborations with partners’ strategies on research projects and supports the accreditation of academic programs at an international level.

There is also the "Global Campus", which seeks to create extracurricular activities allowing the internationalization of the campus for all the UC Chile Community to access international opportunities.

Among these activities, we can highlight the participation at international contests where students from our community have competed online with projects and collaborative innovation initiatives.

One of these competitions was the “RISE” (Real Impact on Society and Environment), a challenge from the U21 Network seeking to find initiatives which contribute to having an impact on society and the environment, where 2 teams of undergraduates students were at the last round.

In addition to this, 3 graduate students are participating in the global final of “U21 | PwC Innovation Challenge”, a competition that seeks to reward innovative ideas about the future of the workplace.

During the upcoming months, both curricular and extracurricular initiatives will continue to be strengthened as Internationalization at Home.

“We are sure that our efforts will reach not only our students but also our entire UC Chile Community (Scholars, researchers, staff)”, comments Florencia Roncone.