UANDES has a distinct Christian identity, which inspires our institutional values and gives life to our cultural ethos. These values are the search for and commitment to the truth, the harmony between faith and reason, the appreciation for human dignity, respect for personal freedom and the awareness of responsibility, the commitment to work well done, and look forward to public service, unity, and the vocation of permanence.

The University particularly cares about the environment there is. Through the personal relationship with each student and the importance given to small details, it transmits that the demeanor of the University student involves a way of being and how the student is seen by others, and appropriately behaving in each situation and circumstance. It promotes a style consistent with our Philosophy, without leaving the respect for personal freedom aside.

Personalized treatment is a manifestation of the student’s centrality in our educational model and a concrete way of living the values of our institution. Therefore, the close relationship among professors and students and academic counselling, has a special formative relevance within the academic project of the University.

a. Close relationship among professors and students

The purpose of a scientific education opened to universally human subjects, in which science and humanities converge, involves a close relationship between students and professors, for the latter represent not only a source of knowledge but also coherence of life and act as student role models. That is why the University conceives the professor as our main cell. Students must be able to recognize in their professors the achievement of an intellectual and human life ideal.

Only through personalized treatment will the professor be able to really get to know the students and identify those aspects of their academic and personal life that need improvement. Consequently, the professor’s willingness to serve the disciple requires a trustful and respectful dialogue that raises original scientific and existential concerns, which stimulates specific intellectual and moral habits, and widens highly personal growth horizons.

The personalized relationship aims to educate students in a reflective attitude that allows them to live the virtues associated with work well done: spirit of service, commitment to quality, professional ethics, openness to dialogue and willingness to learn from others, temperance and cordiality. The cultivation of this personal relationship should occur naturally outside the classroom. The University favors these instances of relationship through the “open door” policy of academic authorities; recognition and supervision of this reality according to the professor’s profile; tutorial methodology for practical steps and research activities; work as assistants; and academic counselling, among others.

b. Academic Counselling

Academic counselling is a tangible way of deepening personal treatment between professors and students, at the undergraduate level, and securing an education that goes beyond the mere transmission of knowledge in the classroom: it is a voluntary instance of student formation. The University offers our students the possibility of keeping personal and permanent contact with a professor of their unit to discuss their academic performance and university life throughout the career. Valuable opportunities arise from this exchange so that the professor can orient the student’s behavior towards his self-realization.

Academic counselling serves, firstly, to encourage the student to study and participate in university life. It addresses issues on academic activity: organizing time, class notes, study techniques, reading controls, writing essays and research work; selection of PEG and Minor courses, and selection of professional specialization subjects. It is also a tool that allows to overcome problems in the student’s university environment. It allows the student to face evaluations and their results, to timely detect and channel greater difficulties such as student stress and anxiety. Dialogue with the counsellor in a pleasant, trustworthy environment also nourishes the student’s motivation and pleasure for studying and acquiring knowledge.

It also aims to stimulate the cultivation of other interests: cultural, artistic, social, sporting, and scientific; participation in assistantship, research or social service activities; student exchange programs or the mastery of a foreign language. It also favors the development of competences and work skills. During meetings with the counsellor, the student receives suggestions regarding the way of being and university style in terms of punctuality, appropriate language, way of acting in the professional environment, among others. Finally, counselling is a favorable instance to orient the student of higher courses in choosing a work field.

Coherence between “thinking and doing” of the academic staff is essential in the formation of our students. The professor is the living and eminent expression, a model of university ideals. To a large extent, the effective fulfillment of the University’s mission and our educational service to society depends on the way of being and acting of the academic staff. Therefore, in their capacity as privileged carriers of the university imprint, the academic staff will show a special eagerness to reflect such ideals in their teaching and public life.

Effectiveness of a student’s learning depends on the quality of the professor, to a large extent. In our Academic Model the close relationship between the professor and the apprentice, in the old-fashioned way, is essential. The purpose of a scientific education opened to universally human issues, in which science and humanities converge, involves a close relationship of the student with its professors, representing not only a source of knowledge but also of example and coherence of life. That is why the University conceives the professor as our main cell. Students must be able to recognize in their professors the achievement of an intellectual and human life ideal. This vision of the professor as an educator by excellence is a reflection of the professor’s work in and out of the classroom. It is defined in the professor profile of Universidad de los Andes, stipulated in the document UANDES Professor Profile and Work Plan. In summary:

• UANDES professors must try to be suitable professionals based on their training, experience, and achievements.
• They will stand out, in the first place, because they identify with the mission of the University.
• UANDES Professors are expected to be passionate about the task of training each student in an integral way, they will master the technical and philosophical aspects of their science, be open to other disciplines and meet the basic criteria of professor good performance.
• The professor will provide a personal and dedicated treatment to students through academic counselling and other instances of meeting with students.
• In their research activities, they will stand out for their unwavering commitment to truth, being very rigorous in their methodology and having the ability to contribute in an original way to scientific discussion.
• Finally, a UANDES professor is expected to have a high sense of belonging to the institution.

The elements of the UANDES Educational Model define the structure on which study plans are designed and updated, with the goal of fulfilling the institutional Graduate Profile.

Following the direction of our Educational Model, all training programs at UANDES focus on the achievement of the Graduate Profile. Therefore, each program is developed based on a curricular structure that clearly defines the certification or degree provided with its respective academic load (credits), it explains how the course curriculum establishes a trajectory that allows disciplinary and inter-disciplinary training and how the program addresses the general training of its students.

The three pillars of this curricular organization are defined below:

a. Structure of certificate titles, degrees and certifications

It is the definition of formal credentials provided by the University and the articulations between them, guiding the creation of possible trajectories for the students, that allow them to go from undergraduate to postgraduate training, as well as access the Institution’s continuing education offer, which seeks to enhance learning throughout the life of our students.

To express the duration of each one of the undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees and certifications, in 2011 UANDES adopted the Transferable Academic Credit System (SCT-Chile) agreed by the universities that are part of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, with the following purpose:

• Accurately reflect the student’s dedication to each subject.
• Enable flexibility and student exchange.
• Adequately structure the undergraduate and postgraduate academic cycles.
• Distribute the student’s workload proportionately throughout the duration of the career.

Application of this system is according to the following conversions:

• 1 standard academic year = 1,800 hours of student work = 60 credits.
• 1 semester = 900 hours of student work = ± 30 credits (not necessarily 30 exact credits; the annual sum must be 60 credits, but the semi-annual composition may vary: for example, 31/29, 28/32,).
• 1 credit = 30 hours of student work (attendance to classes, other academic activities, personal study, elaboration of works, readings…).

Postgraduate courses at UANDES include the training programs to achieve a master’s degree or a doctorate and the specialization and post-titles of the health area. Continuing education includes other shorter academic programs not leading to a degree or certificate title. These include post-titles from areas other than health, diplomas, seminars and training courses, aimed at professionals with previous education in the area, who maintain a special affinity with the post-graduate course.

Post-titles are non-academic programs that aim to specialize and deepen the knowledge acquired in a specific undergraduate program. For this reason, applicants must come from careers directly linked to the contents of the program. Its duration may vary from one semester to two years, depending on the depth and specificity with which the contents will be addressed. Like a master’s degree or doctorate, it is structured around courses, workshops and/or seminars.

On the other hand, academic diplomas are programs not leading to a degree and are aimed at acquiring new knowledge at a higher level. They require that applicants have a degree or professional qualification or at least be in the final years of a career. Its contents are not necessarily associated with a previous career.

Both programs –postgraduate and continuing education– are privileged spaces for teaching in depth and specialization content, because of the research or practical experience of academics. The differentiating criterion between postgraduate programs and continuing education is based on duration and on the requirement of degree or previous qualification in the respective area.

These programs replicate the Educational Model of UANDES, although in a different proportion to the undergraduate, given the shorter duration of the programs and student time availability.

b. Disciplinary and inter-disciplinary training

It is the orientation of the University’s study plan, which includes disciplinary scientific and technical contents of each career; internship and assistantship programs aimed at developing the skills and abilities of the graduate profile; and inter-disciplinary training, aimed at complementing the understanding of reality with new analysis perspectives.

At UANDES we view interdisciplinarity as the ability to dialogue across disciplines, learning from other ways of thinking and other methods to develop knowledge, to obtain cultural enrichment and complement the professional profile by approaching study goals from different aspects, in order to make more informed judgements.

c. General Training

It complements disciplinary and interdisciplinary student training, giving them an integrating vision of science and human culture, thus ensuring the fulfillment of the mission of our University.

This general training is imparted in undergraduate programs through the General Studies Program (PEG, for its acronym in Spanish). In postgraduate programs it is given thanks to subjects or seminars that provide sapiential vision.

In young students, university life awakens an endless number of existential concerns. The growth and development of the person goes hand-in-hand with the acquisition of human virtue, through study and the example of others. This is why the University particularly cares about the environment there is. It is passed on to students through personal treatment and attention to detail. The University conceives university life as a propitious instance to develop social service skills, entrepreneurship and teamwork, supported by a physical or virtual environment that facilitates learning.

The University Campus is a geographic space specially designed to support the Educational Model of the University. Located at the foot of the Cordillera de los Andes, it counts with 52 hectares destined to offices of the academic faculty, classrooms and auditoriums, student lounges, library, laboratories, University Clinic and spaces for recreation, sports and spiritual assistance.

The definition of a main Campus for the University is due to the need to materially ensure the integration of diverse knowledge and interdisciplinary dialogue. The cultured coexistence promoted by the University among our academics and students, expressed through the integral training offered, requires a common space to facilitate personal contact and openness to other disciplines. Also, the territorial unit effectively favors the “open-door” policy of the authorities and the participation of the university community in general activities keeping the union bond alive.

On the other hand, the infrastructure and disposition of the Campus seeks to promote a serene study environment, a natural environment leading to intellectual creativity, and beauty with a pedagogical sense.  Proof of this, for example, is the existence of silent reading rooms, neatness and cleanliness of the facilities, landscaped gardens and the sustainable and ecological development of the Master Plan. The community also benefits from the Campus through outreach and continuing education activities. The architectural definitions of the University also consider interior spaces favoring personalized treatment of students and the use of new teaching methodologies.

Extracurricular training instances play a key role in the student’s comprehensive training. The University promotes free and voluntary participation in social service of those most in need, sporting, scientific, cultural and entrepreneurial activities, which are necessary for the cultivation of a full life.

University life is enriched by those spontaneous activities arising under the protection of members of the university community who wish to broaden their formative horizon by sharing a same interest or hobby. The University conceives the participation in these activities as a suitable instance for the acquisition of skills and virtues related to teamwork, solidarity, leadership and entrepreneurship, physical health, openness to other student profiles, and spiritual growth.

The integral training that the undergraduate student acquires through curricular activities is reflected in the University Life Curriculum. The University officially certifies, through a resume, all extracurricular activities carried out by the student during the duration of the career. This certification is a formal expression of the University, recognizing and valuing all the educational means of our academic model.

Finally, it is convenient to extend this component of “Educational Environment” of our academic model to places outside the campus where it also develops academic and university life: the clinical fields, the places where our students perform internships and the virtual environments in which courses or subjects are developed in the form of e-learning or b-learning and that must also reflect the identity of our University.

a. Disciplinary Training

The largest portion of the curricular course is composed of scientific, academic and technical subjects directly related to the chosen profession and imparted with the rigor of theory and practice. The contents of these subjects include the fundamentals, notions and applications of a specialized knowledge, necessary to provide quality professional or academic services. This purpose also determines the practical component in the case of professional careers: From the initial stages, students are expected, to acquire not only a knowledge but a “know-how” and a “know-how to be” of the academic or work environment.

The learning results and their contents are vertically organized in the undergraduate curricular course, in terms of variety per semester, and horizontally, in depth and specialization as the program progresses. This sequence has been preferred because it favors the cognitive maturity process of the student, which requires progression in time. Having subjects from the specific discipline since the first semester also allows early vocational discernment and an initial contact with the profession.

In the area of transversal skills, most programs incorporate activities aimed at improving oral and written expression, stimulating teamwork and developing critical thinking and creativity.

Internship and assistantship programs are relevant elements of the undergraduate curriculum because they contribute to the development of skills and of the graduate profile. There is a wide variety of modalities and duration between them. In all careers, except for bachelor in humanities, students must perform varying internship periods during the study plan and at the end of the career.

The study plan of postgraduate programs is also based on this Educational Model. At the disciplinary level, curricular courses are structured around contents with a high degree of updating, deepening and specialization, depending on the type of program. The practical training of the postgraduate is expressed through the development of professional activities related to the clinical exercise in the area of health, the solution of practical cases, the elaboration of projects and internships in the area of humanities and administration. In the case of research programs, the cultivation of this skill is carried out with the support of the research methodology course and the permanent supervision work of each thesis director. Doctorate programs also require a previous stage of research qualification or sufficiency that culminates with the thesis project defense of the doctorate.

b. Interdisciplinary Training

Interdisciplinary training is guaranteed in the undergraduate program, fundamentally, with the requirement of completing a Minor of free choice. This program consists of a smaller concentration of subjects through which the student knows the conceptual and methodological foundations of a science different than that of the student’s career. Consequently, students are expected to complement their understanding of reality and enrich their employability profile.

Minor programs, which have 12 assigned credits, are imparted by academic units according to the needs of students, so that they can supplement their curriculum in purely professional terms or delve into areas of personal interest, at the pace of their own intellectual concerns.

At the postgraduate level, given the specific nature of the programs, interdisciplinarity is cultivated thanks to the presence of professors from different fields of knowledge within a program and by conducting joint research with other disciplines.

c. General Training

The General Studies Program (PEG) aims to complement the “technical” education of undergraduate students with an integrative vision for science and culture. It allows the student to address the fundamental questions of human existence and acquire an understanding of the human-being, enriched by history, science, art and literature. Our students need a series of knowledge — that cannot be meaningless — to help them answer the fundamental questions about the world, society, culture, and their own lives. Thanks to the general training that we offer, not only will they become better people, but also better professionals, able to understand the deep keys that govern our society.

PEG subjects correspond to the sapiential dimension of knowledge. They provide fundamental notions in five areas: Theology, philosophy, science, fine arts, history and society. Specifically, the program consists of eight courses of three credits each (24 credits in total): Four mandatory (anthropology, ethics and two theological) and four optional (science, art and literature, history and society, and theology).

PEG subject sequence is defined in the curricular course of each career, but they are ideally studied during the first years, so that the student can apply the sapiential reflection to the analysis of disciplinary and contingent subjects. The four mandatory courses are imparted to students of the same career in order to address issues under a prism related to their professional training.

The student who raises an objection of formal and serious conscientiousness to study the theological courses, because of our respect for personal freedom, will be able to choose three alternative subjects: Religion Philosophy, Theodicy and Religion History.

All postgraduate programs have some anthropology and ethics courses or seminars, which focus on those subjects related to the professional ethos of the student, thus ensuring a general formation and sapiential vision.