Changes introduced in UTNBA’s Admission Seminar

UTN Buenos Aires decided to introduce modifications in the Admission Seminar such as duration, and to prioritize applicants that have to take the course again, with the intention of improving students’ performance.

The changes were defined after the evaluation by the Admission Commission, which was created at the beginning of this year with the aim of designing strategies to improve that instance.

One of the modifications introduced for the 2019 Admission Seminar is its duration. Until this year, the seminar took a month and a half, under the intensive modality, from February to mid-March. “What is being proposed is that the seminar be held for two months, in February and March. In addition, instead of being intensive, four hours every day, students will attend 3 or 4 times a week, longer hours. The intention is that students can learn, manage virtual campus material and have access to other activities within the School,” explained Dr. Mirian Capelari, UTNBA’s Academic Secretary.

Another measure to be implemented next year will be an extended course for those students who are in the senior year of high school and have already decided to study engineering. The course will be taught between the months of May and November, which will give the students time and calmness to consolidate knowledge.

For Eng. Vanina Bottini, Secretary of the Planning and Process Management Office, this decision will allow the students “to have a better performance in the first years of the degree program because they will be able to better assimilate the contents and know all the existing tools that there are available to support them. This will probably lower the number of students that have to re-attend basic science courses.”

The School decided, in addition, to carry out a strong work of accompaniment by tutors. The departments will be more strongly linked with the students in this period, guiding them with the required strategies at the university level, with more material and more time for study hours. “Working with these requirements, during the seminar period, will allow them to start in better and safer conditions. They will have talks with graduates and professors of the degree programs and will be more convinced of the decision they have taken,” added Capelari.

With respect to the preliminary course that is taught in the months of October and November, the high school students with the best averages will no longer have priority. This year we will choose to work with students who have to take the course again and those candidates who had tried to take the course in previous years and had not been able to do it. Now they will have access to this course because it is understood that they have a different time schedule, since most have already finished high school. The Secretary of the Planning and Process Management Office explained that many of the students took the admittance exam in February or July, and “their knowledge is fairly fresh, so we do not want them to take the February or March exam, but rather offer them to review these contents, thus giving them priority.”

“This possibility, -she explained- is not available to students who enrolled last year but did not attended the seminar. They must have attended and failed the preliminary course or the admission seminar. Nor will it apply to those who have already sat for the entrance exam without having attended the course.”

Starting next year, more actors will also be added throughout the admission period. To that end, on September 13, a call for graduates was launched to join as teachers of the admission seminar or to participate in some tutoring activity in this period. “Graduates are essential actors because of their experience and vision of engineering. They can contribute giving talks, doing some specific activity with the students. We think of the role of the tutor as an academic reference that will accompany the students throughout their entire course of studies,” said Capelari.

In addition, students in advanced stages of their program are also being invited to join the Admission Seminar as assistants in mathematics and physics classes, or as tutors.

The Admission Seminar is divided into two major components. On the one hand, the mathematics and physics course, and on the other, module A, which is an Introductory Workshop on University Life. Graduates will participate in this area, through panels, visits to laboratories and work with tutors.

The Student Center will offer information on support lessons and study groups, which may occur more frequently as courses move on.

“We know that students, under favorable conditions, can learn and move on in their studies. What we try to do is to generate these conditions. We have a large gap in education systems. One of the challenges that we are taking together with the authorities and other sectors of the School is to also work with high schools and to strengthen skills within them,” said the Academic Secretary.

Enrollment will remain open until December 14.