Regional Hub

Latin America & The Caribbean

The “Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile”

The “Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile” (UC) was born in the year 1888, from the Catholic Church’s heart, and is characterized by building a community that, in the exercise of teaching freedom, contributes to the generation, diffusion and expansion of universal knowledge, and in particular of each discipline, as well as to the scientific and professional training of youth, through research, the creation of new knowledge and undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

The Mission of the “Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile” aspires to achieve excellence in knowledge creation and transfer and in people formation, inspired by a Catholic conception and always at the service of the Church and society. It is oriented to build a frontier university that, from its Catholic identity, imagines new realities, expands opportunities and commits itself to society.

One of the overriding functions of the UC is the formation of students to serve others, in line with the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae’s words. The current UC Development Plan (2015 – 2020) proposes two cross-cutting pillars of the mission: The UC identity and Community. Additionally, these pillars are developed in five specific work axes: creation of frontier knowledge, innovation in teaching, inclusion to expand opportunities, interdiscipline for major challenges, internationalization to participate in a global world and, public Commitment.

Experiences

STORIES

Voices of
Learning Service

"Es una cuestión de coherencia entre el mandato de la Iglesia y la misión de la Universidad (...) No se trata solo de ser buenas personas, se trata de dar una oportunidad para mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza. Esto es estratégico: asociar el AYSS con los procesos de mejora"

Chantal Jouannet & Manuel Caire, Universidad Católica de Chile

"Partimos del reconocimiento de que la Universidad no posee el conocimiento de manera exclusiva. Necesitamos apoyarnos en el liderazgo en los estudiantes y las comunidades, que aportan sus conocimientos y experiencias"

Daniela Gargantini, Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Argentina

"El aprendizaje servicio no es una creación de las universidades católicas pero reconocemos en esta metodología muchas oportunidades para educar a los estudiantes. Vemos cuánto aprenden sobre sí mismos, sobre el curso y sobre la sociedad al ser confrontados con diversas dimensiones de la justicia social. AYSS es un regalo que las universidades católicas pueden usar para profundizar nuestro compromiso con la sociedad, vinculado con la misión social de la Iglesia".

Nicolás Standaert, Universidad de Lovaina, Bélgica

"It's a matter of coherence between the command of the Church and the mission of the University (...) It isn't about being good people, it's about giving an opportunity for better quality of teaching and education. This is strategic. Associate it with the improvement processes"

Chantal Jouannet & Manuel Caire, Universidad Católica de Chile

"It is necessary to start from the recognition that the University doesn't own knowledge, and needs to place the leadership in students and the community with their knowledge and experiences"

Daniela Gargantini, Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Argentina

"Service Learning is not a creation of Catholic Universities but we recognize in this methodology many opportunities to educate students. We see how much students learn about themselves, about the course and about society by being confronted with aspects of social justice. SL is a gift from the outside that we Catholic Universities can use to help us deepen our commitment to social engagement, linked to the Church’s social mission".

Nicolas Standaert, Louvain University, Belgium

An ever-expanding
global network

UNISERVITATE is a global and networked programme that is established through a process of permanent development and the integration of new actors and institutions from a series of regional hubs strategically distributed around the world.