Centro Integral de Innovación Social: the university in the territory

Abstract

The Universidad Católica del Maule has a history of relationship with the territory through its research centers, clinical fields, internships in rural and urban schools, access programs to higher education, among others, which have allowed it to strengthen a network of actors who participate in university activities. This article aims to show the experience of the Comprehensive Center for Social Innovation (CIIS), which, based on a participatory process with internal and external actors, developed a model of Social Innovation to be institutionalized in the undergraduate curriculum. The CIIS is an entity that articulates institutional links with actors in its environment to achieve reciprocal learning, collaborative work in the search for mutual benefits and the permanent improvement of the institutional functions of teaching, research and links with the environment. Facing the challenge of transforming the university culture that has traditionally privileged vertical, tutelary and welfare relationships with the
environment; and the poor alignment of training with the needs of practicing the profession.