TUNING-LA
Final Report
• Reflexions and
Perspectives in Higher
Education in Latin
America
TUNING-LA
Final Report
Thematic areas
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Business Administration
Architecture
Law
Education
Nursing
Physics
Geology
History
Civil Engineering
Mathematics
Medicine
Chemistry
TUNING-PERU
University System (1)
• There are 83 universities of which 35 are
state and 48 are private
(2004).
• Four of the private ones
are for profit.
• There are about 282.000
students in state
universities and 237.000
in private ones
• The total number of
professors is 49.000 of
which 70% are full time
TUNING-PERU
University System (2)
• Rectors of all universities constitute a National
Assembly to oversee the compliance of the
University Law
• The Law does not really set standards for the
quality of teaching or research
• The Tuning National Centre is under the
National Assembly of Rectors, which is also
trying to promote a self evaluation program on
the part of the universities
TUNING-PERU
University System (3)
• Each university issues valid diplomas on
behalf of the State using its own
Regulations, which makes for really no
standards at all.
• Right now a certain university is questioning
the validity of an MIT doctoral degree while
recognizing local doctoral degrees obtained
without any original research.
TUNING-PERU
University System, Physics (1)
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UN Mayor de San Marcos
Lic en Física
UN San Antonio Abad
Lic en Física
UN de Trujillo
Lic en Física
UN San Agustín
Lic en Física
UN de Ingeniería
Ing Físico y Lic en Física
UN de Piura
Lic en Física
UN Pedro Ruiz Gallo
Lic en Física
UN Federico Villarreal
Lic en Física
UN del Callao
Lic en Física
UN Jorge Basadre Grobmann
Lic en Fís Aplicada
UN San Luis Gonzaga
Lic en Física
Pontificia Univ Católiza del PerúLic en Física
Univ Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Lic en Física
TUNING-PERU
University System, Physics (2)
• In LA three types of programs in Physics can be perceived:
• Traditional Physics (research and development,
university education, and industrial production and
services)
• Applied Physics (medical physics, geophysics,
engineering physics and biophysics)
• Educational Physics (high school and technical
physics)
• Peru has programs of the first and second type only
• Educational Physics programs are sometimes offered by others
than Departments or Schools of Physics
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (1)
• 1 To set up, analyze and solve physical problems,
theoretical and experimental, by using numerical,
analytical or experimental methods +ALL
• 2 To use or write computational programs for
processing information, numerical calculations,
simulation of physical processes and control of
experiments
• 3 To identify essential elements in a complex
situation to make the necessary approximations and
to construct simplified models describing such
situation, in order to understand its behaviour under
different conditions ++ACA
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (2)
• 4 To verify model correspondence to reality and to
identify limits to its validity
• 5 To apply Physics theoretical knowledge to
execution and interpretation of experiments +ALL
• 6 To attain a deep understanding of fundamental
concepts and principles of classic and modern
Physics +ACA, EMP and STU
• 7 To describe and explain natural phenomena and
technological processes in terms of concepts,
theories and physical principles
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (3)
• 8 To construct and develop valid reasoning,
identifying hypothesis and conclusions
• 9 To extrapolate general principles, laws or more
general theories from particular solutions -ALL
• 10 To estimate orders of magnitude of measurable
quantities for interpreting diverse phenomena --
STU, EMP
• 11 To develop a clear perception of the fact that
apparently diverse situations show similarities
allowing for the use of known solutions to new
problems ++EMP, --STU
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (4)
• 12 To show experimental skills and adequate
methods in laboratory work --GRA
• 13 To participate in professional activities
related to high technology in the laboratory or
in industry –AC, EMP GRA
• 14 To participate in counselling and
elaborating proposals in science and
technology with emphasis on topics of social
or economic impact at the national level
-ALL
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (5)
• 15 To act with responsibility and professional ethics
showing social conscience for justice and solidarity as
well as respect for the environment ++GRA, EMP
• 16 To demonstrate work habits necessary for the
practice of the profession such as team work, scientific
rigor, self learning and persistence +ALL
• 17 To seek, interpret and use scientific literature
+ACA, STU, GRA
• 18 To communicate scientific concepts and results to
peers, students and the general public through oral
and written language ++GRA
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (6)
• 19 To participate in physical or interdisciplinary
research projects ++STU
• 20 To show readiness to face new problems in other
fields, using one’s specific abilities --STU, GRA,
ACA
• 21 To know the conceptual development of Physics in
historical and epistemological terms -ALL
• 22 To know relevant aspects of the learning-teaching
process in Physics, so as to collaborate in the
education of scientists -ALL
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (7)
Brief Analysis
• Competences in Physics were consulted with
Academics (ACA), Employers (EMP), Students (STU)
and Graduates (GRA). 801 answers were obtained in
12 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico, Peru and Venezuela
• High correlation coefficients between answers from
ACA and GRA and low correlation between EMP and
STU were found
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (8)
• Competences 01, 05 and 16 were chosen among the
six most important by +ALL (ACA, EMP, STU and
GRA)
• Competence 06 is one of the most important ones for
+ACA, EMP, STU. Same for Competence 17 with
respect to +ACA, STU, GRA
• Competence 15 is the most important for ++GRA,
EMP. Same for Competences 03 (++ACA), 19
(++STU), 11 (++EMP) and 18 (GRA)
• Competences 09, 14, 21 and 22 were chosen among
the six less important by -ALL
TUNING-LA
Competences in Physics (9)
• Competence 13 was chosen the less important
by --ACA, EMP y GRA. Same for 10 (--STU,
EMP)
• Competence 11 was chosen the less important
by --STU. Same for 12 (--GRA), 20 (--STU,
GRA, ACA)
TUNING-PERU
What to do with Competences (1)
• Of course we can deduce syllabi and curricula from them.
This has been done already, we suppose, by many planners,
albeit imperfectly. Top to bottom, this process was called.
• Our Physics school in Peru was set up by engineers. They
knew some Mathematics and a lot of Statics. So they
started at the bottom and remained there for 3 years. For
instance, they had 3 courses on Geometry: Analytic,
Projective and Descriptive. Some of the 13 Physics schools
at present still do something like that.
• Jobs are scarce in Peru for university graduates in general.
If somebody proposes to create a new school to alleviate
the situation, the curriculum may contain anything.
Competences will be much beneficial in this context.
TUNING-PERU
What to do with Competences (2)
• We can use Competences at a different level. If two
schools adopt the same set, interchange of students
among them will be easy (grades from the other school
will be accepted). Same set of competences do not
means same style, same experiments or same
equipment. Personal needs or preferences could be
better served if students can choose some courses in
one place and others in another.
• But first, we have to worry about getting to give our
graduates the approved competences.
For 01 we thought of a very simple experiment
connecting everyday observation with registering and
analysing motion in two dimensions.
TUNING-PERU
The motion of a sowbug (1)
• The progress of a sowbug crawling in between a glass
plate and a kitchen table top could be marked by a
pen hitting the image of the sowbug on the glass at
times t, t+Δt, t+2Δt, …., etc. signaled by the sound of
drops falling from a faucett on a sink. Suppose
Δt=1s.
• Pen markings define an approximate trajectory in the
glass plate and can be used to draw the velocity and
acceleration arrows of the moving sowbug.
• This may illustrate what Competence 1 is about
• Also motions in two dimensions look more natural
than in just one dimension.
TUNING-PERU
The motion of a sowbug (2)
TUNING-PERU
The motion of a sowbug (3)
TUNING-PERU
The motion of a sowbug (3)
• Of course, this could be done in the high schools of
Peru, replacing the kitchen faucett by a discarded
blood serum bottle hospital kit (minus the needle!),
but our high school teachers are not good enough yet.
• It may be argued that electronic sensors are more
precise and have a much wider field of applications.
True. But we don’t have sensors for two dimensions,
or rather low price positioning systems.
• The experiment can be continued by registering
coordinates and using the data in a computer.
Thanks, Europe (1)
• We started educating physicists in Peru in 1964.
Three or four of us returned by that year from the US
and Europe. The “or” reflects that one of the four was
a German who seems to have always lived in Peru,
only that Sommerfeld´s school never existed here.
This was our first stroke of luck. We had, presto, a
modern physics lab going.
Our second was that the French started worrying
about their incoming Mururoa explosions and its
effects in the Pacific coast. But they got to see the little
research we were doing and started sending us their
“military cooperants”, some of them very thoroughly
trained physicists.
Thanks, Europe (2)
With them we atarted publishing very soon in the
international journals.
• Next came the invitation to send people to Trieste
where Abdus Salam was thinking and acting for our
benefit and after that came the possibility of European
scientists visiting us to lecture on topics related to our
overall development (Multiciencias). This was greatly
helped by a contribution through Cicyt, the Spanish
link with the European Commission!
• Also by this time we got very good help from the
Uppsala Program, Sweden.
Thanks, Europe (3)
• Only now our Government is finally giving us a
hand through the acceptance of a loan from the
Inter American Bank. This has been the source
in Latin America for major investment in
Science and Technology. Brazil 40 years ago to
Ecuador 5 years Brazil got his ‘à yeqrs ago.
• Being in Spain today, I would like to recall
some of Salam’s ideals. He, a Muslim, used to
walk paths of the old Arab scientists bringing
the Greek love for knowledge to Europe
through Spain.
Thanks, Europe (4)
• Salam in bringing young scientists to Europe through the ICTP
in Trieste, remarked several times that he believed in the unity
of men. A great English poet, John Donne , had said that when
a man dies, every other man dies a little. “For whom the bell
tolls” asks one man. “They toll for thee”, answers another.
• Cesar Vallejo, a Peruvian poet, living in Spain at the time of the
Civil War, told of a man about to die. His companion said No,
you must not leave us! And called other men to intone a chorus
chanting the same. But the man died/ but so many came that soon
all of humanity was there with a voice so strong and
determined that the man came back to life
• You, Europeans, know of course know the force of unity!