Rector of the U. de Aysén is elected as President of the Association of Regional Universities of Chile (AUR)

The 22 regional universities gathered in AUR will have a new presidency, after the rector of the University of Aysén, Natacha Pino Acuña, was unanimously elected in the framework of their plenary session held in the city of Osorno.

Association of Regional Universities (AUR).- “It is a very special day personally and I am very grateful for the support of the rectors. It is very exciting that today all my colleagues have unanimously decided to support and run for the AUR presidency. But also, it is a tremendous opportunity and I fully trust the conviction that from the regions we can do a lot for higher education. This is a refresher for AUR, since new rectors have been integrated and little by little we have been reaching agreements so that our group is the actor that we want it to be, that it carries the voice of higher education in the regions and becomes the supporting arm of the Regional Government to strengthen local governments”, said the newly elected university authority.

The new authority of the regional universities will have as its first task, to work with a group of rectors to define new models of institutional governance, which provide greater flexibility and prompt responses to situations related to higher education.

It is the first time that a woman will be at the head of the regional universities of the CRUCH, in this regard the rector Pino pointed out, “it is an important sign of what is happening in the country, but I could not achieve it without the support of all the rectors . Today in our session we had a very deep conversation, very thoughtful and after this election I feel a lot of support and willingness to achieve the goals we want for our group”, specified the rector of the University of Aysén.

Natacha Pino replaces the rector Patricio Sanhueza V. as president, who leaves his post with a great legacy of work and commitment on relevant issues such as inclusion, lack of resources for universities with a high presence in the regions, and little encouragement to the development of regional science, among others.

The Association of Regional Universities of Chile (AUR) is an autonomous entity formed in 1996, with a marked focus on decentralization, it is made up of 22 universities with their central houses in regions, with a public vocation and a long tradition, which have contributed to the formation of quality human capital fully in tune with the needs and development of the regions where they are located.

The meetings of rectors of Chilean universities belonging to the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities are held in person and remotely, in the city of Osorno between August 24 and 25, developing meetings of higher education entities, Consortium of State Universities, AUR, Red G9 and CRUCH respectively.