Las Tunas, Cuba.- An event of this 2019 that Las Tunas inhabitants will remember is, without doubt, the external evaluation process experienced last week by the house of high studies, in which an expert committee of the National Accreditation Board (JAN) of the Ministry of Higher Education (MES) analyzed the main indicators of methodological, research and extension work in the last five years, as well as its current status and the main projections aimed at sustaining and overcoming.

Exams of History of Cuba and Marxism, the projection of academic and teaching scientific growth, undergraduate training, research and postgraduate, infrastructure and impact, are among the variables that were measured to subsequently grant one of the three categories: Qualified, Certified or Excellence. The faculties of Economic, Technical and Agricultural Sciences, and Education Sciences, as well as the municipal university centers in Puerto Padre, Jesús Menéndez and Jobabo, were subject to an exhaustive inspection.

Students' cultural gala
Students' cultural gala
The Doctor in Technical Sciences Marcia Esther Noda Hernández, executive secretary of the JAN, said that this process represents a mutual learning because it is the first center that is evaluated under the new models of Cuban Higher Education. She recognized the importance of quality analysis for scientific and professional prestige inside and outside the country.

During the presentation of the self-assessment report, the rector of Las Tunas University, Aurora Ramos de las Heras, explained the main strengths of the institution, referred to the eight lines of research implemented, the more than 1,400 scientific awards obtained in the last five years, and more than 300 articles published in magazines of group I and II in that same period. All of that is linked to the work of a faculty in which more than 400 professors have the main teaching categories and 135 are Doctors of Science.

The University today has 101 projects, of which 36 are institutional, 13 are associated with programs and 27 are business. It also has a coherent international relations strategy reflected in the signing of 37 international cooperation agreements, collaboration in 21 international academic networks, its own international project, and participation in four others.

Cucalambeana Fiesta in Las Tunas University
Cucalambeana Fiesta in Las Tunas University
The evaluators held exchanges with undergraduate students, executives attending the research, study centers, postgraduate coordinators, project managers, young and retirees reinstated professors, members of the academic committees and graduates of doctoral and master's degree programs. They also met with the Council of the Provincial Administration, agencies of the Central State Administration and strategic sectors of the province such as Azcuba, the Delegation of Agriculture, the Ministry of Science, among others.

During the week, they had the challenge of showing in a few days the extensive extension work that they display, with exhibitions of the honorary chairs, the University Book and Reading Festival, a representation of the University Cucalambeana Fiesta, visits to community projects and the gala "Por mi Ciudad", an evening in which the amateur artists showed the most representative of Cuban traditions.

On Friday the final report of the institutional evaluation was released. The intense days lived were the conclusion of a long and hard preparation period that began in 2014. However, Las Tunas University still has many challenges in its purpose to increasingly strengthen the quality of its processes.