Adaptation of University Extension and Social Linkage Projects to times of pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic forced Higher Education Institutions to redefine their strategies to serve the university community in the new normal. The Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University (UPNFM), as an institution of higher education responsible for the training of teaching professionals of the Honduran educational system, in the face of the crisis situation caused by the Pandemic, developed and presented to the university community and society, its Protocol and the set of guidelines to develop activities related to the substantive function of university extension and social bonding in the new normal.

The process for the construction of these instruments for university extension work was developed from a reading of the context and the identification of priority areas or themes to be approached from a new approach that would favor the participation of the university community in activities in territory. Taking as a reference, the recognition of the need to articulate university extension with both the rural and urban community, a diagnosis and characterization of local and national problems was carried out that could be addressed from the University Extension and Social Linkage Projects (PREUVS ).

The implementation of the defined guidelines is oriented towards the establishment of strategies to ensure the modification of the planned actions based on the crisis due to the emergency marked by social distancing and confinement.

The new scenario demands from the UPNFM the need to search, identify, propose and develop alternative solutions to socio-educational problems. Starting from the very nature of the University, the reformulation of the PREUVS is seen as a concrete action to provide a social response from the University to the new demands of the community