Catholic University of Cuenca

To develop critical thinking by articulating the substantive axis on which the university bases its action, to form competent professionals, and to contribute towards solving the problems of society. / To be a high-quality university, with national recognition and international projection.

• To contribute towards the development of universal thinking, scientific knowledge, and the promotion of technological transfer and innovation.
• To strengthen students’ thinking toward achieving personal autonomy, in the framework of free thinking and ideological pluralism.
• To contribute to the acknowledgement, preservation, and enrichment of ancestral knowledge and national culture.
• To form responsible academics and professionals, with good ethics, solidarity, who can contribute towards the development of the country’s institutions
• To contribute towards the completion of the development regime objectives, contemplated in the Constitution and in the National Development Plan.
• To promote and execute scientific, technological, and pedagogical research programs that contribute to the improvement and protection of the environment, and that promote national sustainable development.
• To establish opportunities for the strengthening of the sovereign, independent, unitary, intercultural, plurinational, and secular Constitutional Nation.
• To contribute permanently to local and national development, through community work or university extensions.
• To promote the democratization of teaching, peace, and dignity for all, preserving national identity, boosting the sources and means of production, and the domain of social justice, in accordance with the National Development Plan.
• To preserve institutional freedom, by building harmony with the external, social, and economic factors, as well as the diffusion and strengthening of the Ecuadorian social values.
• To promote the vocational, technical, and scientific training of the researchers, professors, and students, with the goal of contributing to the integration of a more just, equitable, and solidary social collective, in cooperation with Governmental organizations and society in general;
• To articulate teaching, research, and community involvement, to the academic demand, to the needs of integral development, as well as to the diversification of professions, of graduate programs, and of degrees, responding to the job market, to the productive structure, and to the national politics regarding science, technology, innovation, and ancestral knowledge, as is established by the Higher Education System.