In order to comply with the provisions of the Organic Law of Citizen Participation and Social Control, regarding accountability, Yachay Tech University informed the community of the actions it carried out and its achievements during 2020. For this, the University made its 2020 Accountability Report available to the public on its website: https://www.yachaytech.edu.ec/rendicion-cuentas-2020/.
Yachay Tech was created on December 16, 2013 by Law, and its aim is to train new generations of young leaders who have technical knowledge, investigative capacity, ethical and moral values and critical thinking that contribute decisively to the promotion of national production.
During 2020, the University expanded its academic offer with two new majors that comply with the principle of relevance and that will contribute to the research development of the country. Both majors were approved by the Higher Education Council (CES): Materials (School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering) and Computer Science (School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences).
As a result of the institutional management, aimed at promoting the research projects of students and professors, nationally and internationally, the second and third cohorts graduated in 2020, thus awarding 194 students with their undergraduate degrees.
The scientific production generated at the University hit a record of a total of 126 indexed publications in SCOPUS, which reflects an increase of 8% in contrast with 2019.
Through the teaching assistance provided at Yachay Tech, students were able to publish a total of 60 indexed publications in SCOPUS, thus demonstrating the advances of the research culture developed at the University.
Likewise, in 2020, the University remained first in the Nature Index ranking in Ecuador.
The Rector of Yachay Tech and President of the Supervisory and Institutional Strengthening Commission, CIFI, José María Lalama, PhD., highlighted during his speech that: “our objective is to train professionals who are agents of change, who generate knowledge and continue with their postgraduate studies to increase scientific production in the country. We are surrounded by top quality faculty who have shared their knowledge with our students. We seek quality, transparency and academic efficiency”.
He also stressed that, during 2020, 860 scholarships and 12 financial aids were awarded to university students, which exceeds the percentage established in the Organic Law of Higher Education.
25 agreements were signed: 10 with public entities, 10 with private institutions, and 5 with international institutions for inter-institutional cooperation, project execution, pre-professional practices and other topics of interest.
The Rector pointed out that the current vision of the University includes a greater sense of community engagement. In this regard, 7 community engagement projects were carried out such as: OfflinePedia and “The Andean bear as an umbrella species: environmental education and conservation in San Francisco de Sigsipamba”.
He added that in response to the health crisis affecting the country, the University has a state-of-the-art laboratory for analysis of PCR tests for COVID-19, which was possible thanks to joint work with various public and private institutions. He made this laboratory available to the community, as its facilities and technical staff benefit the northern part of the country.
To conclude his intervention, he pointed out that Yachay Tech will continue to strengthen his management to be an elite university that will cause a high impact on the economic dynamics of the country through the change of the productive matrix.