The authorities of the Patagonian Universities defined the creation of its own Institutional Network within the framework of the First Meeting of these houses of studies that was held in La Pampa.
As indicated, this space will serve to capture «the regional process of linking our institutions, and that allows us to share and cooperate in joint efforts to strengthen our resources and mutually collaborate with the substantive functions of the Universities, allowing the development of different activities in articulation, both within each institution and at the regional, national and international level”.
Regarding the actions that will be developed, they will have as objectives «strengthen and articulate the undergraduate and postgraduate academic offers, face-to-face and technology-mediated and implement common technical-professional training paths, joint qualifications at all training levels”.
Besides, “to make our institutions visible at an international level and develop joint actions for inclusive and quality internationalization; encourage and promote good institutional management practices; consolidate and articulate scientific developments and technological linkage with regional companies and research institutions”.
The representatives included among the objectives of the Network “to promote processes of inter-institutional mobility of teachers, students, non-teachers and graduates; strengthen the community, social link and with the native peoples of the Patagonian region; articulate proposals for online distance education and cooperate in the construction of an educational agenda, focused on human rights (education in contexts of confinement, gender perspective and sustainable development).
The document made a general analysis of the university system; the impact of its actions on the harmonious development of the country and its constitution in spaces of «guarantee of the inalienable right to higher education».
Within this framework, they highlighted the work of the Patagonian universities that «they are located in cities and localities far from each other, due to the same dimensions of the Patagonian region, as well as at great distances from the geographic centers of the country, which allows expanding access and democratization of higher education throughout the national territory.
They expressed that in the face of the challenges faced by these institutions “they require particular needs to sustain the necessary human resources and the physical and technological infrastructures of the headquarters, coupled with the need for a differential budget for said task.”
In closing, the gathered authorities indicated that the brand new Network “will allow us to strengthen, in the current context and in the face of the challenges of the immediate future, a national and international vision of Patagonia as a unique region in the world, no longer just based on its material, geographical and tourist resources, but also from the consolidation of a space for academic training, trained human resources and regional scientific-technological development of the highest level for all”.