CAF and UNSA strengthen economic education to boost productivity in Peru

CAF-development bank of Latin America- and the San Agustin de Arequipa National University (UNSA) have signed a Framework Agreement for joint collaboration aimed at bolstering the university’s economics curriculum.

The initiative – which gets underway in 2019 – aims to supplement on-site classes with online lessons imparted by professors and high-level internationally renowned researchers and specialists in their field. Teachers and students in the early stages of the Economics curriculum will benefit from the use of digital technologies aimed at providing them with specialized guidelines, as well as learning and teaching techniques to help them apply what they learn in the region’s public universities in the real world.

During the signing of the Framework Agreement, CAF Executive President Luis Carranza Ugarte, along with UNSA Chancellor Rohel Sánchez Sánchez, said that the project is aimed at “driving the potential of human capital in the region through solid professional training that meets the highest international quality standards, which will in turn benefit both individual participants and the region as a whole. Ultimately, Arequipa will have excellent professional economists to work as civil servants, entrepreneurs, or collaborators in academic or private activities. An additional benefit will be a network of professionals, researchers and analysts who will devote their individual and collective knowledge to regional development.” 

Meanwhile, Rohel Sánchez Sánchez thanked CAF for its willingness to contribute to the education of future economists with a global vision. He also praised Luis Carranza’s global approach, adding that, “it is the University’s job to continue providing comprehensive education to the students who will go on to create advancements in science, technology and innovation.”

Sánchez stressed that the results will become visible in the short, medium and long term, adding that an institution with 190 years’ institutional experience is sure to guarantee the operation, execution and continuity of the framework agreement between CAF and UNSA.

Finally, he pledged the institution’s commitment to making this network of economic training a reality, and thanked the faculty of the Department of Economics, urging them to continue working toward economic education.  The chancellor also suggested the program’s deployment in other schools renowned for their economics and business-related curricula with which the university has signed collaboration agreements.

One innovative feature of this initiative is that participants will be able to join virtual discussion forums, which will allow them not only to improve their knowledge, but also to support the efforts to internationalize academic training of public universities in the region in the area of economics.

It is important to highlight the fact that the project focuses on education, both on-site and online. On-site classes will be taught by UNSA resident professors of economics, while online courses – which will be managed by CAF – will be supplementary to their classroom counterparts and will include materials and methodology both for students and teachers. As such, both institutions will contribute to build up the region’s human capital, which translates into increased productivity, growth and regional integration in the medium term.