The new regulation approved by the Superior Council applies to the new careers that are created by the UNR or to the study plans that are reformed from now on. Progress is being made towards shorter study plans and with intermediate degrees.

The new degree courses that are created by the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) will be shorter and will have a maximum extension of 4 years. With this regulation proposed by the Rectorate and approved unanimously by the UNR Superior Council, the aim is to modernize study programs and promote student graduation, in addition to adapting to constantly changing global contexts. However, the resolution will not modify the extension of careers such as Medicine or Engineering.

The suggestion to consider the extension of the study plans has been raised both from within the UNR in different meetings with teachers and students, as well as in the framework of the plenary of rectors of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) and of the work proposals from the Secretary of University Policies and the Ministry of Education of the Nation.

The authorities of National Universities have been debating reforms to the system to advance in profound changes in the academic proposals during the next years. The already agreed idea is to aspire to more integrated and shorter careers, which promote mobility, contemplate intermediate titles and hybrid or combined modalities.

It is on this path that the UNR, through the Superior Council, approved the regulations that establish the maximum workload of the new study plans for undergraduate courses. Specifically, the approved text establishes that the minimum number of hours required by the national system or the respective accreditation bodies will be taken by the Universidad Nacional de Rosario as the maximum possible amount. In this way, UNR is the first Public University to carry out this transformation in academic training paths. From now on, the total workload of the study plan will not exceed the minimum established by national regulations of 8 semesters, a duration of 4 years that contemplates the delivery of 2600 hours.

Like the rest of the Argentine universities, the UNR is governed by ministerial resolution No. 6, which establishes that the minimum duration of undergraduate courses must be 2600 hours and 4 years. However, there is a set maximum of 5500 hours and that's when the programs get all the more extensive. The majority of undergraduate study plans at National Universities last longer than the minimum established in the various regulations. And the time becomes even more extensive when the real duration of the races is evaluated, which is well above the theoretical duration, that is, the one established in the study plan.

In the case of the UNR, the real average duration of undergraduate courses is 9 years, an average that is repeated in a similar duration throughout the national university system. And this is what the authorities of the Rosario University intend to modify. “A real average duration of 9 years is not reasonable. Modifying this requires multiple measures, but an essential one is to establish a maximum number of hours below the current one and set a duration of 4 years for our undergraduate courses. It is a very important step that we are taking, the first time in the system, and it is in tune with the set of academic, pedagogical and curricular reforms that we are promoting”, said Rector Franco Bartolacci.

With this new regulation, the total number of hours of the study plan may not exceed the minimum established by national regulations, that is, 4 years and 2600 hours.

Last January, at the meeting of the plenary of rectors together with the Minister of Education of the Nation, Jaime Perczyk, they agreed to implement maximum deadlines for courses in the coming years. “It is a priority for our Ministry and the university system. Our objective is for the student to finish the degree”, explained Perczyk who promotes the transformation of teaching models. “It is about reconfiguring the Argentine university system for the XNUMXst century, so that it helps social mobility and drives the economy,” he added.

Shorter careers and more graduates

"This modification also seeks to honest study times, since there is a huge gap between what the program says a degree lasts and what really extends," added Bartolacci. Data from various investigations and reports from government agencies reflect this: only 29,6% of students graduate within the theoretical time provided. "This is due to multiple factors that cross the academic trajectories of each student, but it is also linked to the curricular proposals of the institution", expresses the project approved by the Superior Council and presented by the Rector of the University through the Academic Area. and Learning.

Given that the retention and graduation of students constitutes a priority line of the academic policy of the UNR, it is necessary to shorten the distances between the theoretical duration established in the approved study plans and the actual duration in the graduation of the students.

"This analysis should not only be circumscribed to reflect on the workloads, contents, correlations and other graduation requirements established by the study plans, but also consider the volume of academic activity that students demand, the real trajectories of the same, the availability of time and its relationship with the possibilities and realities”, explains the document.

Indeed, this new format, now established as a general regulation for the UNR, has already been applied in the latest undergraduate courses implemented in recent years, where new training proposals have proliferated as a complement to the traditional paths of the University.

“A second university reform is necessary, which safeguards the threshold of excellence that guarantees public university education and at the same time causes profound curricular, pedagogical and academic transformations. In order to continue fulfilling its mission, the University must change a lot and quickly”, pointed out the Chancellor, and remarked that this ordinance “is part of a set of changes that we are promoting. There is no measure that by itself allows us to account for that objective. Many things must be changed and all at the same time, always with the aim of caring for the excellence of our training, promoting permanence and graduation and allowing what happens in the classroom and laboratories to continue to be, in a world that changes so much. and as dizzyingly, as relevant as it is today.”

Article 43: What happens with the extension of careers such as Medicine?

Bartolacci clarified that the careers that respond to professions regulated by the State -those reached by article 43 of the Higher Education Law- will be able to display their contents in more time.

According to the law, those careers whose exercise could compromise the public interest by directly putting health at risk, must not only comply with a workload but also with periodic accreditation from the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (Coneau), and the study plans must take into account the basic curricular contents and the criteria on the intensity of practical training established by the Ministry of Culture and Education.

Currently, the norm covers the training of Pharmacy, Biochemistry, Veterinary, Agricultural Engineering, Architecture and Dentistry.

“The regulations recently approved by the Superior Council put the courses taught at the UNR in line with the standards of the National Ministry of Education, which proposes a minimum floor of four years and 2.600 hours for undergraduate courses, but this does not harm the extension of the races that are currently being taught”, he explained.

The rector stressed that "it is not a question of reducing hours but of reviewing the systems of correlations, equivalences and contents to favor the graduation of students and shorten the distance between the theoretical and the real duration of the careers." He indicated that today the average number of students is graduated between eight and ten years after starting their studies, "which is not reasonable."

"Thinking that everything there is to know about a discipline can be exhausted in undergraduate studies is an idea from another time," he closed and specified that the idea is to focus on advancing towards free postgraduate courses.

Journalist: Micaela Pereyra/Photographer: Camila Casero.