News

Typologies report is presented to the Board of Directors of the Catholic University of Colombia

At the end of April, the third mission’s typologies report, prepared by the Extension Directorate as a product of the third packet of the IMPALA project, was presented in first place to the board of directors of the university. The following are those who attended said meeting; dean Dr. Fransisco Gómez Ortiz, quality manager Dr. Cecilia Garzón,  vice chancellor of human talent Dr. Ricardo López and acting academic dean Dr. Carolina Arguello. In addition, the aforementioned report was presented in full to the university’s extension committee in which all university collaborators involved in the third mission participate. It should be noted that each chapter of the report was presented by the actors of each of the six typologies recognised in the impact measurement document of the third mission of the project, as well as by the national extension policy in Colombia, namely: continuing education, innovation management, community actions, assistance services, cultural management and advisory and consulting services.

It is important to note that the typologies report is a fundamental tool for the university in so far as it shows the outreach directions, its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats as well as the good practices of this substantive function. Finally, the document provides interesting recommendations which can be implemented in the university with the goal to continue consolidating the third mission. 

Top managers’ meetings in the University of Panama

The University of Panama is hosting the regional conference of the Erasmus+ project IMPALA on 10 and 11 May 2022.

The staff involved in the project is meeting the university’s top management to present the project and one of the results of IMPALA: the institutional impact assessment report.

Ph.D. Ricardo PARKER, General Secretary of the University of Panama, Mgter Vielka CASTILLO from the General Secretariat; Ph.D. Yajaira CASTILLO, Deputy General Secretary and Ph.D. Maribel GÓMEZ from the academic vice-rectorate.

There was a meeting with Ing. Eldis BARNES, Dean of the faculty of agriculture and livestock sciences at the University of Panama. During the regional conference, one of the faculty’s projects will be presented in a panel on good practices of the university’s third mission.

The IMPALA team of the University of Panama also met with Mgter. Arnold MUÑOZ, administrative vice-rector of the University.

The team also met with PhD. Nimia HERRERA GUILLÉN, Director of lifelong-learning education of the third mission’s vice-rectorate. She will participate in a panel on good practices of the university’s third mission during the regional conference.

The project IMPALA participates in important international events

In the month of October, the IMPALA project was presented at different international events. This is the case of the CAEI (Congress of the Americas on International Education), which was attended by 1,100 delegates and representatives of higher education institutions, associations, and national, regional, and international organizations, as well as government and private sector entities from 40 countries. In this event, Patricia Serrano and Marcela Del Campo presented the poster: “IMPALA: Alianza internacional para el fortalecimiento de la extensión universitaria” (“IMPALA: International Alliance for the Strengthening of University Extension”.)

During the same month, Marcela Del Campo presented the paper. IMPALA: Modelo de evaluación de impacto de la extensión universitaria (Impact evaluation model of university extension) in the XVI international congress of the Latin American Extension Union. This event received more than 2,500 participants from Latin America and the Caribbean, meaning our project had high visibility. The aforementioned congress had, as its main objective, to contribute to the critical reflection of the work of Extension and Social Action of Latin American universities through the exchange of knowledge and experiences of different actors of the Latin American university and civil community regarding the challenges of the regional context.

It is in this way that the IMPALA project continues to gain visibility both nationally and internationally. In 2022, we will continue with the task of presenting the progress of the projects to all those interested in the third mission.

IMPALA work session observation in the Pontifical Xavierian University (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) and the University of La Sabana

Following two years of virtual meetings and online work sessions of the IMPALA project as a result of the pandemic, the consortium finally returned to meet face-to-face from the 14th to 18th of March to carry out a study visit and a coordination meeting.

On this occasion, Colombia was the destination that was chosen to receive the delegations of the consortium with the Pontifical Xavierian University and the University of La Sabana as hosts of the event.

During these days, each of the host institutions organised work spaces with different participants of the third mission including, managers, beneficiaries and directors. They will shared the projects of the different typologies of the third mission that are being conducted in their institutions with the members of the consortium.

Likewise, we made the most of this study visit by carrying out a round table with the participation of the Colombian Association of Universities (ASCUN for its acronym in Spanish), the National Council of Accreditation (CNA for its acronym in Spanish), and the Latin American Network of Accreditation, whose objective is to analyse, in more detail, the topics related to quality, accreditation processes and the third mission of the universities.After two years of virtual meetings, it was also important to change the discussion methods and to rekindle communication between the partners of the consortium, hence the importance of this face-to-face meeting.

IMPALA at the second Latin American meeting of social management

On 29 October 2021, the IMPALA project was presented at the second Latin American Social Management Meeting: “Social Management, Democracy, and Participation” organized by the Latin American Social Management Network – RELAGS. The meeting was attended by more than 400 people from 12 Latin American countries.

In this meeting, Carlos Alberto Arango-Pastrana and Juan David Peláez-León, both professors at Universidad del Valle (Colombia), were invited to participate in the fourth panel “Universities and Social Management: Teaching, Research, and Extension”. The professors presented the IMPALA project to the panel attendees during their speeches.

In addition, they exposed the measurement of impact in extension as a priority issue for universities, showing an application of the methodology IMPALA in the project “Strengthening the competitiveness of specialty coffees in the center of Valle del Cauca – CAFINNOVA”. Funded by the Fondo General de Regalías in Colombia, this research project was adjusted from the methodology built by IMPALA to measure its impact. If you would like further information about this presentation, please go to the following link: