First National Seminar on Thought about the University

On November 16, the first National Thought Seminar on the University was held in the General Auditorium, in which teachers and authorities from various local and national universities participated.

The symposium was created as a space for the University to think about itself and with the objective that it fosters a constant debate of thought about its work and foundation, from a theoretical perspective and with special emphasis on the case of Latin America.

Within the Symposium there were several exponents that dealt with issues related to changes in university education.

The program began with the welcome to the event by Diego Jaramillo, president of the Permanent Symposium, who thanked the speakers for their participation and spoke of higher education in the current context.

"We must place the debate on the University in this era of globalization and within the framework of the new humanities."

The first conference was given by Francisco Salgado Arteaga, Rector of the University of Azuay, with the theme "University, Meaning and Prospective".

"It is not an occasional issue but a permanent task of the University to investigate itself as a human institution and build today the University we want, to form citizens capable of transforming the world," said the Rector.

Then it was the turn of Arturo Villavicencio and his paper "The University Assessment, new challenges", in which he reviewed the university reform that 10 began years ago, and that -in his opinion- "implemented control and monitoring mechanisms that they ended up with university autonomy undermined. "

"Challenges of Ecuadorian Catholic Universities facing the transformation of higher education in Ecuador" was the third lecture given by Fernando Ponce León, Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE).

"We live in a socio-environmental crisis described in the papal encyclical Laudato Si, which is an invitation to think about the ideology of Catholic universities, oriented towards harmony among human beings among them, with nature and with God," said Ponce León.

Next, the conferences of Carlos Rojas on "University Reason and Autonomy" and "The University, horizon of perplexity" on the part of Iván Carvajal.

Rojas said that the autonomy of the University "does not derive from the will of a State or a Constitution but from its search for scientific truth, which can only be found in freedom" and Carvajal concluded that the University should be thought from "the perplexity that surrounds the humanities. "

At the end of the conferences, a conversation was held on the previously discussed topics in which the speakers of the Permanent Symposium participated.