Presentation of 14 academic-pedagogical management improvement projects that will benefit public universities in Peru

They were developed with the technical support of UNESCO IESALC, as part of the Program to Strengthen Improvement Plan Projects, financed by the PMESUT of the Ministry of Education

Lima, 29, 2022.- During 192 hours of training and technical assistance 43 project managers and university teachers received personalized advice with quality mentors, as part of the Program for Strengthening Improvement Plan Projects aimed at improving the academic and pedagogical management of public universities in Peru.

The program was designed by UNESCO IESALC within the framework of call 6 called “Improvement of Academic and Pedagogical Management in Public Universities”, financed by the Program for the Improvement of Quality and Relevance of University and Technological Higher Education Services (PMESUT) of the Ministry of Education (MINEDU), Peru.

It was based on the transfer of knowledge based on best practices, through advisory sessions and seminars with international experts, as well as virtual visits to universities with experience in the implementation of improvement processes and monitoring of teacher development. In this way, participants were able to learn how the service has been implemented in other institutions in order to acquire competencies in an experiential way.

The intervention model, carried out by UNESCO IESALC, was based on the development of the competencies necessary for the different managers to have the skills and tools to carry out, in a sustainable and scalable way, the process of transformation, adaptation, implementation and monitoring of their Improvement Plan Project (PPM), focused on an approach aimed at strengthening a teaching-learning system that allows moving from an emergency model, marked by distance education, to strengthen an approach aimed at blended learning.

The Program for Strengthening Improvement Plan Projects is conceived from an integrated model of training, technical assistance and accompaniment with training in conceptual and methodological frameworks aimed at strengthening the competencies of university managers through the development of collaborative activities, both in agile tools and in methodological frameworks aimed at the reformulation of 14 Improvement Plan Projects to benefit 12 universities: 7 projects aimed at strengthening teaching and 7 projects aimed at educational and technological innovation.

Representatives from the following institutions participated: Universidad Nacional Daniel Alcides Carrión, Universidad Nacional De Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle Universidad Nacional de Frontera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota, Universidad Nacional de Jaén, Universidad Nacional De San Antonio Abad Del Cusco, Universidad Nacional José María Arguedas, Universidad Nacional de Huancavelica, Universidad Nacional del Callao, Universidad Nacional del Santa, Universidad Nacional del Centro, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Tayacaja Daniel Hernández Morillo.

The Program for Strengthening Improvement Plan Projects closed on March 28, 2022 with an online event broadcast via Facebook Live with the participation of the different working groups that presented their improvement plans in video format. The closing event was also attended by representatives of UNESCO IESALC, PMESUT and General Directon of Higher University Education (DIGESU) of Minedu, Peru.

Rocío Victoria Quispe, Director the DIGESU, said that the Peruvian government has considered it essential to have allies such as UNESCO IESALC to develop interventions in favor of universities, teachers, students and university communities, as well as to generate research groups and networks in this collaborative work that will result in greater regional mobility in the future, for which the work of university authorities and teachers is fundamental.

For Francesc Pedró, director of UNESCO IESALC, the future is already here and the universities have been able to respond to the pandemic with exemplarity and commitment, for which it has been necessary to develop capacities with agility. Now it remains to hope that these capacities can be applied perhaps in the continuity of the work between the Minedu, the PMESUT and UNESCO IESALC to achieve a future with greater quality, equity and inclusiveness, even greater than what we had before the pandemic.

PMESUT highlighted all the proposals presented by the teams and based on real diagnoses of the participating universities. It was also informed that the implementation phase will continue in order to crystallize the improvement programs and carry them out.

The global project coordinator, Yuma Inzolia, made an overall assessment of the program where she reviewed the three-month experience with details about the it that included virtual visits to 10 institutions in Ibero-America to learn first-hand about the successful experiences, the effort and collaboration of the teams from each institution.

While the project coordinator for UNESCO IESALC, explained the technological and innovation work carried out for the improvement plans, facing the challenge of hybrid work that has come to stay and the need to strengthen the technological structure of the participating institutions.

We have felt very supported and protected by their advisors and their availability has made our journey easier

Managers, Universidad Daniel Alcides Carrión

The improvement strengthening plan has allowed us to reformulate and align our activities within the framework of university development

Gualverto Quiroz a, coordinator of managers, Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle

Thanks to the high quality, accompaniment and advice from UNESCO IESALC we have increased management for teacher development and monitoring, articulated with institutional policies, within continuous improvement

Managers, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota

The best thing has been the accompaniment we have had, the virtual visits, international experiences and the support of specialists in the subject

Annick Huaccha, Universidad Nacional de Jaén