New academic school structure [P4.S1]
AIM: World class engineering schools require an organizational structure and a governance that is consistent with the rapid evolution of knowledge and the continuous increase in complexity that appears as a result of the advances in analytical, numerical, and experimental capacities of engineering. Most shared concerns derived from health, sustainability, information, and engineering in science are interdisciplinary, which implies the need for a different strategy in order to approach them successfully.
The most frequent response of institutions to this concern-based arrangement of the university is the conformation of research centers that revolve around a specific shared concern. However, the structures of the university and engineering schools are not necessarily prepared for taking the most advantage of such an arrangement, and the coordination between centers is not necessarily simpler than that of engineering departments.
In this context, both universities agree about the need to strengthen their organization and modernize their management models to better respond to the third mission and ensure the sustainability of the initiatives that are part of the plan.
More specifically, at UC the conceptual idea is to propose a new flexible organizational structure for discovery in a graduate school that allows faculty and students to move across disciplines with less structured and disciplinary constraints imposed by current departments. This major project is synthesized in four important reforms:
(i) to create a new graduate school
(ii) to reform accordingly the current undergraduate school
(iii) to create a new professional education school
(iv) to bring to the governance of the schools an advisory/trustee board formed by distinguished engineering alumni and non-engineering professionals and entrepreneurs.
At UTFSM the challenge is to fundamentally modify the organizational structure around research, innovation and entrepreneurship, develop new control systems and incentives, and create a plan to promote all activities related to R&D+i+e, thus raising the relevance and presence of the third mission in the activity, in line with the guidelines and strategic objectives in the institutional Strategic Plan 2014-2018. The proposed reform is based primarily on 4 vectors:
(i) redesign the governance and management of R&D + i at a corporate level
(ii) define a new management model for the Innovation Centers (CIT)
(iii) modernize the Tenure-track and performance evaluation process
(iv) to develop a quality assurance system to ensure monitoring and evaluation of results in R&D + i
These new institutional structures and governance systems will together with the already established Directions of Innovation and Offices for Licensing and Technology Transfer (OTT), facilitate and promote the institutional development of the third mission by:
(i) strengthening the capacities to master the education in innovation and technology transfer
(ii) creating a suitable institutional plan for engaging the community in innovative and entrepreneurial activities
(iii) setting appropriate incentives to scholars, such as the development of new academic evaluation procedures geared to attract and retain talented scholars.
MAIN ACTIVITIES:
• New engineering graduate school (UC)
• New engineering undergraduate school
• New professional engineering education school
• Superior governance advisory/trustee boards
• New model of governance, management and structure at UTFSM
• New governance model and management at UTFSM-CTIs
• Monitoring and evaluation of outcomes associated with R&D and innovation in the UTFSM