1/17/18 · Institutional

"The only alternative to social inequality in Latin America is education"

Foto: UOC

Foto: UOC

Pilar Murcia , director of the new UOC office in Colombia

 

The UOC will soon open an office in Colombia, a country with which the University has historically maintained close institutional and social links. Its director, Pilar Murcia, is a psychologist by training but has focused her professional career on the development of e-learning in Colombia. Her first steps in the world of ICT were at the Universidad de Los Andes. She also worked for the Universidad del Rosario, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and the Colombian Ministry of Education, until arriving at the UOC, which she has always regarded as her home, she says, given that she is a graduate of the master’s degree programme in Education and ICTs.

 

 

The UOC will soon open an office in Colombia, a country with which the University has historically maintained close institutional and social links. Its director, Pilar Murcia, is a psychologist by training but has focused her professional career on the development of e-learning in Colombia. Her first steps in the world of ICT were at the Universidad de Los Andes. She also worked for the Universidad del Rosario, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and the Colombian Ministry of Education, until arriving at the UOC, which she has always regarded as her home, she says, given that she is a graduate of the master’s degree programme in Education and ICTs.

 

Colombia is going through a process of political and economic change (peace process, economic recovery, etc). What is the current situation in Colombia?

Colombia is a country that has been marked by misfortune for over 50 years: armed conflict, drug trafficking, guerrilla warfare, paramilitaries, etc. There are all kinds of dark forces influencing a reality that had a good breeding ground: social inequality. The situation in Colombia is very similar to what is happening throughout Latin America: there is always a socioeconomic problem preventing the population from having access to a basic opportunity. Therefore, the continent is a social project because the enormous differentiation between distinct social strata is a structural problem, perpetuated by corruption. From my point of view, the only alternative is education. Perhaps not in this generation, but I hope that the children of today manage to live in a world of peace thanks to education.

And how does this affect the Colombian university system?

In the university sphere the same thing happens as in the real world. There’s a growing demand for university studies, partly thanks to the increase in women's access to higher education. In this context, garage universities have been created, which are very low-quality universities. Moreover, , as in many Latin American countries, e-learning has been considered second rate, despite going through a great expansion thanks to the Ministry of Education's support for online education. This situation is a great opportunity for the UOC, as the government is implementing an all-inclusive country plan for the use of ICT in different areas of society: education, health, government.

The UOC has developed an online learning model backed by 20 years of experience in Catalonia. What can our university contribute to a country like Colombia?

First, the model. The UOC has a highly valuable educational model focused on skills, which helps students to improve their professional performance or access another kind of post. For this, we need a real analysis of the added value provided by each type of multimedia tool according to type of learning.

Second, collaborative work, which allows you to have contact with people from all over the world. In order to learn globally, it’s not only necessary for the content to have a global concept; you also have to be able to interact with people from anywhere in the world.
Lastly, continuous assessment: this is not an assessment of learning but rather an assessment for learning. Its objective is to guarantee the assimilation of knowledge so it changes in concept and guarantees quality. I am an example, as I learnt at the UOC.

Do you think a UOC-Colombia alliance will improve Colombian education in terms of access and quality of higher education online?

I’m sure about this, as the UOC has a lot to offer in several fields: first, systematizing and supporting other universities in the development of their model, and, second, increasing quality research in the areas in which we work.
Another important field in which the UOC can contribute a great deal is in consultancy thanks to UOC Corporate in the business sector and UOC X in non-formal education. In fact, UOC X has developed a project to bring students’ levels of study on an equal plane through the programme “Ser pilo paga, with which the government helps the best students in the country with fewer resources to study in prestigious universities. These students do not always have the skills needed to study in such demanding universities, so they finally give up their studies. This is why it is fundamental to solve the problem of student study levels and for these students to complete their studies successfully.

Colombia was the country chosen to begin a new UOC international delegation model. What reasons led to the choice of Colombia? What is involved in this new model?

Colombia has been chosen because it has a good level of higher education but it also has a richly nuanced reality. Our objective is to develop a model that can be replicated in other countries of the Southern Cone, as the social system is very similar. The UOC is not going to “colonize” but pursue win/win relations. We are going to help so that each university can carefully design its management, pedagogical and organizational model in the field of e-learning. Now, for example, there are five universities interested in a consultancy, such as the one being undertaken with DUOC UC, three of them in regions that have suffered armed conflict. Imagine the social impact we can have as a university!
The objective of the delegation is not commercial but to improve quality, expand coverage and access, and have a social impact. We will also give support to the large number of Colombian students that study at the UOC. We are currently working on a model of recognition of degrees, as has already been done with Ecuador, and on facilitating international practices with different companies in the country.
Hopefully in a few years we will have references from employers about students that graduate after we have improved the quality of e-learning! I guarantee it will be very good.

 

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