During the last five years UDLAP has undertaken actions to promote the participation of its faculty in research, consulting, continuous education and other institutional projects. The rigorous selection process has meant that more than 60% of full and part time faculty have the terminal degree, and more than 96% have completed graduate studies. More than 75% of the full-time faculty have the terminal degree, and more than 98% have graduate studies. These results demonstrate the institution’s commitment to maintain an adequate distribution of the faculty to attend to the needs of each academic program.
Enrolled students answer a satisfaction survey applied every academic period, where the feedback obtained strengthens the teaching-learning process. The graph shows the trend over the past five years. With a 70% participation rate, the satisfaction average has increased and remained above 4.5 on a five-point-scale.
UDLAP has a Faculty Development program as part of its continuous improvement efforts. During the past five years more than 95 courses have been offered annually in teaching practices, educational technology and professional development. Beginning in 2016, a faculty training program on Blackboard for classroom and distance learning was introduced. The purpose of this program was to incorporate instructional best practices using technology in the classroom. Distance learning workshops were given to provide flexible training that allowed more full- and part-time faculty to participate. The Faculty Development program registered more than 6,800 participations, which allows for the latest in teaching techniques, supporting the academic quality of this institution.
One of the guiding principles of UDLAP is to maintain or increase international cooperation. Year after year the UDLAP faculty has an opportunity to complement their academic experiences abroad, while UDLAP invites faculty from other parts of the world to teach courses here. In 2014 the University of California at San Diego joined the Puentes Consortium, a binational community of scholars who carry out multi-disciplinary research on significant Mexico and the U.S. relations, and of which UDLAP is a founding member. It also has a fund to finance the binational exchange of faculty and Ph.D. students from the member universities, through short summer visits. During the second half of 2015, UDLAP signed bilateral cooperation agreements with three institutions of higher learning in the state of Texas: University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), University of Texas at San Antonio, (UTSA) and the University of the Incarnate Word (UIWTX). In 2017 UDLAP renewed its cooperation and economic support with prestigious European universities through the Erasmus program. Institutions included in this agreement are University of Bergen in Norway, University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Kiel University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The agreement offers academic and training activities, seeking the best international internship experiences abroad. The international agreements promote the exchange of visiting scholars, who enrich the courses offered to students. During the past five years more than 55 professors from various parts of the world have participated.