The University Assembly approved the creation of a new Faculty that will contain disciplines related to human care and movement. In 2026, it will begin with Physical Education and a Bachelor's Degree in Sports.
At a historic University Assembly, the creation of a new academic unit was approved today: the Faculty of Human Movement and Care Sciences. Teaching in Physical Education and a Bachelor's Degree in Sports will be the first courses to begin to be taught in 2026. In the future, there are planned bachelor's degrees in comprehensive care systems, nutrition, technical degrees in accompanying the elderly and other disciplines related to body care that may be incorporated in the future.
The last time a faculty was created was in 1987, when the Faculty of Psychology was created based on the School of Psychology that operated in the Faculty of Humanities and Arts. Now, 37 years later, at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 20, 2024, the hands raised unanimously decided to create this new faculty that during 2025 will follow the administrative and academic procedures to formalize its existence, consolidate study plans and thus be able to start its first cohort in 2026.
In recent years, the academic proposal of the UNR has expanded in a very dynamic and unprecedented way. In this context, the creation of the Faculty of Human Movement and Care Sciences was proposed, whose mission is to host proposals in education and professional training of an interdisciplinary nature, based on a supportive pedagogy, articulated from problems, and oriented towards reflective and critical action.
“UNR’s academic expansion over the last 5 years is unprecedented in its entire history. Never before have so many new courses been launched in such a short time, never before have so many secondary schools been created in such a short time, never before have courses been so diversified, incorporating innovative proposals such as trades or virtual secondary school. I am proud because our community made it possible in very complex years. We are deeply convinced that each new proposal guarantees the right of more young people to be trained in UNR’s proposals, young people who were not able to before because their aspirations were not contained in the University. And making those dreams possible, knowing the liberating power of education, is wonderful. Creating a new Faculty to accommodate highly demanded proposals was a debt. And after 37 years we were able to pay it off,” said UNR Rector Franco Bartolacci.
The concept of care arises from the network of problems and disciplines that run through it, such as healthy physical and mental living, social approaches, gender studies, politics and human movement, among others, which contributed to the production of knowledge and social interventions in relation to it.
Human Movement Sciences, meanwhile, constitute an interdisciplinary field that makes contributions and at the same time draws on health promotion, not being limited to it. This is how the study of aptitudes for sports practices appropriate to individual capacities, physical education, pedagogy, maintenance and improvement of integral well-being related to movement and leisure activities are addressed. This field aims at increasing and sustaining the autonomy of people.
The Secretary of the Academic and Learning Area, Romina Pérez, presented the rationale for the new faculty and explained that the institutional organization will be interdisciplinary. “The different programs that will make up the Faculty will develop an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to improve the quality of life of the group and contribute to social transformation.”
“In terms of its institutional organization, an innovative academic organization model is proposed that reflects the main aspects of the project: interdisciplinarity, flexible trajectories, collaborative work in teaching that avoids compartmentalized, disconnected forms with little integration. This allows for greater integration and optimization of human resources in terms of teaching and research, on the one hand, and avoids the overlapping or duplication of curricular spaces, on the other; in such a way that a collaborative work model can be achieved,” Pérez said.
“This project is also a response to a demand from society that supports us with its contribution. A society that expects and needs professionals capable of developing a critical view that contributes to a better quality of life for the population by addressing the vicissitudes of life, not limited to psycho-physical integrity, but especially focused on development and in relation to everything that contributes to the general well-being of people,” he added.
Currently, the UNR is made up of twelve faculties that provide undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, which is geared towards postgraduate studies, four Pre-University Teaching establishments and two Educational Centres, which offer non-university baccalaureate and technical qualifications. The Higher Polytechnic Institute and the Higher School of Commerce also offer tertiary courses.
“All the new courses are built in modern formats, shorter, with more practical training, more linked to the needs of the socio-productive framework of Rosario and the region. They are so important that they allowed the number of students at the UNR to grow so much between one year and the next for the first time. And at the same time, we are revising the study plans for the existing courses, with the same criteria. Not only is the academic expansion of these years unprecedented, but so is the depth of the reforms that we are promoting, so that the University changes what needs to change and is more in tune with the world we live in. We are very happy and this is a historic event, which confirms what we believe. The best defense of the public University is with the open Public University, generating new things, reforming what is needed. It is with more and better University, in honor of the society that supports us with its effort and deserves the best version of the Public University,” concluded Bartolacci, in an Assembly that also unanimously approved the reports and the institutional balance and a document on the situation of the university and scientific system.