Políticas y estrategias para la formación del personal académico de la Universidad del Zulia en la década de los noventa

Abstract

This article explores academic faculty training policies and procedures at the Universidad del Zulia during the 1990’s. The methodology used in the study consisted essentially of an analysis of official university policy documents, supplemented by a series of semi-structured interviews with university officials from the decade under study, and with other members of the university’s board of directors. The results showed 1) that there was one policy for faculty replacement and another for updating and upgrading, inherited from previous decades; 2) that numerous strategies had been created for the application of these policies; 3) the absence of any permanent training plan; and 4) that the process leaves the choice up to the professor, without regard for the institutional needs of the university. It was concluded that replacement policy is directed towards strengthening research, while training and upgrading follows pre-existing policies, making little effort to meet the needs of institutional change.