Master of Collaborative Conflict Resolution UCT offers a training itinerary based on competencies and culture of peace: it seeks to contribute to the development of the southern macro zone

By Valentina Luza Carrión / Science in Chile.- The Catholic University of Temuco offers among its programs the Master of Collaborative Conflict Resolution, which will be under the aegis of the Center for Alternative Conflict Resolution (CREA) who have worked for 16 years for the democracy.

The Director of the Master and director of the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Administrative Sciences, explains in this interview the in-depth details of the course.

What is the difference between this Master’s program at UC and others?

Collaborative conflict resolution has presented a great development in recent years. Inspired by the culture of peace, it has reached the most diverse areas of people’s lives. In the field of justice, the reforms promoted in Chile since the 1990s have incorporated collaborative forms of conflict resolution linked to conflicts of legal relevance. This has generated a demand for training in Chilean professionals.

Through this program, the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Administrative Sciences shows its interest in promoting collaborative mechanisms for conflict resolution and, for this, has had the Center for Alternative Conflict Resolution CREA since 1998. The CREA Center arises from a project financed by the Ministry of Education; At the end of the execution of the project, the Center continued its operation until today. During these 16 years of experience, the CREA Center has become a national and international benchmark in the field.

What stands out the most from your perspective as an academic and director? (mesh, teachers, teaching)

The training itinerary and the academics who teach the program have vast experience in collaborative conflict resolution and belong to different professions: lawyers, social workers, psychologists, teachers, etc. The team in charge of delivering the program is interdisciplinary.

The program is distinguished by being the only one offered to professionals from the southern macro zone that has a training itinerary based on competencies, semi-face-to-face and under the wing of the CREA Center, which has 16 years of experience in the field.

This program contributes to the solution of regional conflicts and the development of the southern macro zone, since it seeks to specialize socially responsible professionals who share values ​​such as democracy, respect for diversity and the use of dialogue as a method of conflict resolution. .

How will it be addressed? What are the central axes and the focus of the knowledge delivered?

The training areas of the program focus on what are the collaborative conflict resolution processes par excellence, namely: negotiation, mediation and conciliation.

The negotiation, understood as a process of mutual communication, aimed at reaching an agreement with others, when there are some shared interests and other opposed ones; the mediationin accordance with Law 19,968, is a process in which an impartial third party, without decision-making power, called a mediator, helps people find a solution to the conflict and its effects, by themselves, through agreements, and finally the conciliationis a conflict resolution process in which an impartial third party, called a conciliator, helps people find a solution to the conflict, proposing the bases of a settlement.

Common characteristics of these three conflict resolution mechanisms are that they are based on dialogue, self-composition and are voluntary in the sense that no person can be forced to participate in them.

The assumptions and structure of these conflict management systems allow their execution in the most varied contexts and for a wide variety of topics.

The program focuses on the application of negotiation, mediation and conciliation in the family, neighborhood, criminal, school, civil, commercial, health, environmental and labor spheres.

The selection of these topics is in relation to the main legislative reforms, which consider these conflict resolution mechanisms, which leads to the implementation of public policies by the State and, consequently, the need to have specialized professionals in these matters. .

How would you summarize the educational impact of the students who enroll in this master’s degree? In what fields can it develop with integrity?

The objective of the program is to train experts of a high professional level trained to conduct collaborative conflict resolution processes in the family, neighborhood, criminal, school, civil, commercial, health, environmental and labor fields, which constitute a contribution to the culture of peace and the construction of a more just, socially responsible society, through a Christian humanist educational model.

The postgraduate program enables its graduates to work in the public or private sphere in the collaborative management of conflicts, such as: mediation centers, courts of justice, public services, NGOs or international organizations; as well as to carry out the free exercise of the mediating profession through consultancies, or university teaching.

What would you say to a student who wants to enroll and hasn’t decided yet?

That it is a serious program with a large number of graduates who are inserted in various areas of the world of work using conflict resolution mechanisms in the exercise of their professions. In addition, the culture of peace is a demand in today’s world, which is why training in alternative mechanisms to the trial to resolve conflicts stands out as a necessary instrument to achieve a more just and respectful society.

You can apply for the master’s degree at the following link: Catholic University of Temuco (uct.cl)