An amazing thing of events like TICAL is the quality of the participants that, from different sectors of the academic work, get involved to make the Conference a greater meeting. The 2016 edition will be no different and will count on the participation of authorities like the Dr. Guillermo Tamarit, president of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) of Argentina and our guest today. Since March ahead of the institution that works in the coordination of policies and university development strategies and activities to promote the public system of higher education in Argentina, Tamarit will participate for the first time in TICAL. In this conversation, he tells us a little about his expectations for the event, on the importance of ICT in the development of universities in Argentina and how he believes that the Conference can enhance this process. (Photo: Ramiro Pereyra - La Voz)
Who is the Dr. Guillermo Tamarit?
Hello! I am the rector of the National University of the Northwest of Buenos Aires Province (UNNOBA), with headquarters in Junín, for the period 2015/2019, and president of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN), since March 2016.
How do you assess the state of ICT development in Argentine universities at this time in history? And what is your view concerning the importance of them for the full growth of academic work?
Here in the Argentine public universities, ICT are in a permanent state of change and update. Development seeks not only to monitor the state of the industry, but do it with a critical, permanent analysis, which allows choosing the most suitable alternative to meet the ever increasing requirements of the university community in both academic and scientific spheres, as in refers to management.
From a higher education in a country with wide geography and uneven development of infrastructure, the Argentine university system has sought to permanently compensate this gap from the promotion of spaces throughout the territory and seek to ensure services, regardless of location. This is materialized through the development of a national university network that has as one of its premises to provide the best connectivity available within a collaborative and cooperative system in terms of economic support. In this sense, the University Interconnection Networks Association (Ariu), the Ministry of Education of the Nation and the whole of the university public institutions facilitate the development of a support project to the university management, with its own programs and a permanent adaptation to the requirements. The CIN is, in this line, responsible for the System of University Information (SIU).
The accreditation process of the courses carried out by the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU), with permanent monitoring of the deans of the houses of study, permitted to detect and prioritize areas related to ICT with high impact on the teaching-learning process, which facilitated the development of tools and the acquisition of equipment and services.
An example is the coverage achieved with video conferencing services that allow not only to reach the most distant places, but also ensure the necessary infrastructure for conducting collaborative postgraduate (given by several universities together and grant shared titles) or research groups distributed.
In CIN we encourage the deans accompany investments in equipment and services to ensure, also, rely on trained personnel who have the possibility to choose between different options permanently the market and technology offer in general offer. The latter is especially important, since society expects the university places financed by the state to become references and ensure that the choices made collaborate with an increasingly freer, independent and fair.
In this context, TICAL established itself as the main ICT meeting in our region and an important space for the exchange of good practices in the area. This will be your first time at the conference? What are your expectations?
I personally did not participate in previous editions. However, through the participation of the Argentine university system, it was possible to follow the evolution of TICAL since its first edition in Panama. Now, we hope the fact that we are hosting the event facilitates the participation of Argentine researchers and academics. We hope to enrich our perspective in ICT and get knowledge for our future projects.
How CIN and the Argentine universities are preparing to participate and contribute to the event?
The CIN highly values the work of TICAL and its annual meetings, in addition to the workspaces that were created in recent years. Therefore, we appreciate the opportunity to host the meeting in 2016. We are working to promote TICAL, not only in the public, but also in private universities and the rest of the scientific and academic environment of the country.
The entities linked to universities and to CIN, like the University Interconnection Networks Association (Ariu) promote participation and contribute, as we have done in previous years, with economic support for exhibitors and, in particular, with some of the various travel costs of the university representatives.
Buenos Aires is undoubtedly one of the most interesting cities in the world, known for its culture and good food. What suggestions you give to those who seek to know the city in their free time?
We recommend strolling through the city center and see the museums. Many activities are offered permanently on a radius of a few kilometers around the Buenos Aires microcenter. Regarding gastronomy, Buenos Aires offers a range of options from the most varied. Those who are interested in proving the "Argentine Asado" can do it in different restaurants of the Puerto Madero area.
