Astronomy UdeC receives its new Department and Master’s directors

Professor Sandro Villanova comments that “one of the goals for the next period will be to maintain the performance of the Department in terms of enrolled students, research and educational quality, and to promote training through the Master’s program. In addition, we seek to implement a doctorate and expand the spaces for teachers, undergraduate and graduate students”.

Specifically, we seek to increase the infrastructure of the undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of 50% to 100% in classrooms, engineering laboratories, and basic astronomy. This is projected on the basis of undergraduate students, international visits and collaborations, postdoctoral fellows, and the arrival of two new professors, among other aspects.

The new director of the Master’s in Astronomy, meanwhile, highlights as one of the main challenges the return to face-to-face classes, with an emphasis on activities where future students can share together with Master’s students. “Second, we have a great challenge, which is accreditation. The previous director, Sandro Villanova, together with the faculty, did a great job to accredit the program and now we are waiting for the visit of the CNA to concretize the achievement, which will allow us to promote other aspects without worrying about accreditation”.

Thus, the academics agree to continue boosting the quality of the research and articulation processes between the current Master’s program and the future Doctorate.

National visibility, improvements in the admission process making it simpler but more efficient in terms of selection, greater instrumentalization, and opening new professional opportunities for Master’s graduates are part of the aspirations of the academics in this sense, but “without leaving aside the undergraduate program in terms of teaching quality and related topics”, clarifies the new Director of the Department.