International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
DESCRIPTORS: Relevance, Higher Education Quality, Equity, Sustainability.
Costa Rica has an area of 52.000 km, with a population of approximately five million people, the climate is
tropical and humid, and the people are very friendly with the foreign person.
The University of Costa Rica has offices throughout the country, the Costa Rican population, according to
their geographical location, has access to higher education.
C O S T A
R IC A
The University of Costa Rica has six major areas of knowledge: Arts and Humanities, Basic Sciences, Agro
Science, Social Science, Health and Engineering.
In each of them we have authorities that are responsible for coordinating the academic activities. This
authorities can be call as Dean, Principal, and Faculty Assembly (professors) and they represent the higher
collegial body grouped. In most cases, faculties are composed of schools, which are the units that implement
education, research and social action. Around 100 careers are given under this first mode, culminating with
university degrees (undergraduate and graduate), or, undergraduate to graduate programs and certificates of
specialization in special programs.
The Social Action examines the needs and social and higher education demands of the Costa Rican
population, in contact with people and the environment, complements and enriches their work through
institutional programs, cultural processes, continuing education, extension teaching, community work and the
media. This Social Action is one substantive activity that integrates and continuously fed back the university
work with the national and international community in order to achieve, together, the changes required to
improve the quality of life.
The highest authority for Social Action is the promoter that results in research and teaching projects, in
coordination with communities and population that provide the training and knowledge sharing, from a vision of
cooperation, access and support.
Social Action programs are made up of a set of projects that provide an approach articulately planned
medium and long term, working with a transdisciplinary form with different populations in different
geographical areas. They are characterized by accompanying processes that link the university with different
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