For two more years, the engineer Luis Orlando Aguirre Rodríguez, representing the professors of the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), was sworn in this Tuesday, for the third consecutive time, as representative of all university professors in Colombia in the highest advisory body on higher education policy in the country.

The act of possession took place during the session of the National Council of Higher Education (CESU), held at the main headquarters of the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Medellin, before the Vice Minister of Higher Education, José Maximiliano Gómez Torres and the technical secretary of the CESU, Elcy Patricia Peñaloza Leal.

The Vice Minister of Higher Education, José Maximiliano Gómez Torres, highlighted the qualities and virtues of Professor Luis Orlando Aguirre as a member of the CESU and his permanent concern for strengthening this vital line of work for the closing of gaps, the transfer of knowledge and the development of the country.

“Professor Aguirre is again the representative of university professors; he has been re-elected; Professor Aguirre is a man with knowledge of higher education, always with items on the agenda that reflect the interests of those he represents and also the strengthening of higher education,” said Vice Minister Gómez Torres.

In turn, Elcy Patricia Peñaloza Leal, technical secretary of CESU and head of Quality of the Ministry of National Education, highlighted the contributions and experience of Professor Luis Orlando Aguirre, as a member of the advisory body for higher education policy in Colombia: “This is the opportunity for Professor Aguirre, who has spent years in this work, to continue giving us educational policy guidelines from his teaching role to understand how these teachers, with their interaction with students, we can ensure learning and follow effective trajectories of their lives”.

The UIS faculty representative was elected to that representation by overwhelming majority, with 92% of the votes, which corresponded to 22 votes out of the 23 public universities and 9 out of the 11 private universities qualified for the election.

“We are building the guidelines for the CESU and Ministry of Education’s 2022 action plan. We are advancing in the analysis of those activities that were left pending and the new ones that we must review. We are going to restructure the CESU regulations to give more legitimacy to the representations, because there is a case of councilors who are elected practically with their own vote, because there is little participation of those registered”, said professor Luis Orlando Aguirre, once he learned of the results.

Professor Luis Orlando Aguirre Rodríguez, born in Charalá, studied undergraduate metallurgical engineering at the UIS and completed a master’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines in the United States. He joined the Universidad Industrial de Santander as a professor in the School of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science in 1973. He has been representative of the School Directors to the Academic Council, president of the Association of Professors of the UIS and several times representative of the professors in the Superior Council.