Collaboration between disciplines and UEPs is essential to improve their teaching and research profile. Case Ecuador

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18537/mskn.11.02.01

Keywords:

Universities and polytechnic schools, research, fragmentation, overlap, inefficiencies, cooperation, collaboration, entrepreneurship

Abstract

University development in Ecuador was relatively uncoordinated; it was not until the early 1970s that further progress was enshrined in the national education plan. Even then, hardly any attention was paid to research. Additionally, the political, social, and economic development in the following decades, along with the fairly autonomous and uncoordinated landscape of university development can be the cause of the fragmented and mediocre educational and research level of Ecuador’s UEPs[1], at the beginning of the 21st century. It was not until 2008, with the creation of the new constitution, that higher education and research were increasingly being effectively directed, evaluated, and starting to bear fruit. The limited funding of university education and research, resources that are more likely to decrease than increase as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, and the continuing fragmentation between institutions may delay the ongoing rise. Based on an analysis of indicators of higher education and research, and Ecuador’s UEP ranking at the international level, some strategic measures are proposed that can initiate improvement of the performance and efficiency of Ecuador’s higher education and research profile. Especially cooperation within and among institutions and the pursuit of interdisciplinary oriented education and research, preferentially in collaboration with various social actors, are considered the leverage for turning Ecuador’s UEPs into entrepreneurial higher education institutes and will assure that the institutions provide better support to the society.

 

[1] UEPs: Universities and Polytechnic Schools / UEP: Universidades y Escuelas Politécnicas

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Author Biography

Jan Feyen, Professor Emeritus, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Retired in 2007 as full-time professor from the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium), taught courses and conducted research in the transfer and fate of water and chemicals in the unsaturated zone of soils. Coached 51 PhD students and published in collaboration with co-researchers and doctoral students ~250 scientific articles in SCOPUS indexed journals. Joined in 2008 the University of Cuenca as scientific advisor of the Central Research Office (DIUC) and the Department of Water Resources and Environmental Sciences. Main activities consist in reviewing and editing research papers presented to Maskana, DIUC’s scientific journal, and the provision of assistance to the academic community and doctoral students in writing research proposals and scientific articles. He received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Cuenca in 2007, and served in the PROMETEO program of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) in the period 2011-2014. He is currently appointed as visiting professor at the University of Cuenca.

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Published

2020-12-21

How to Cite

Feyen, J. (2020). Collaboration between disciplines and UEPs is essential to improve their teaching and research profile. Case Ecuador. Maskana, 11(2), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.18537/mskn.11.02.01

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Research articles

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