Boric appoints Víctor Cubillos Godoy as rector of the University of Aysén

President Gabriel Boric Font appointed Víctor Luis Cubillos Godoy as rector of the University of Aysén for a legal term of four years, starting January 15, 2026, and accepted the resignation of Enrique Andrés Urra Coloma from the same position as of July 29, 2024. The decision is contained in Supreme Decree No. 8, from the Ministry of Education, processed by the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile No. 44,557, on Thursday, September 24, 2026, Section I, page 1 (official reference: CVE 2872000).

The decree is issued under Law No. 20,842, which created the University of Aysén as a public law legal entity, autonomous and functionally decentralized, and under Decree with the Force of Law No. 7 of 2016, from the Ministry of Education, which established its statutes. Pursuant to Article 16 of said statute and Law No. 19,305, the rector is the highest single-person executive authority and legal representative of the institution, is appointed by the President of the Republic by supreme decree, and serves a four-year term, with the right to a single consecutive reelection.

The administrative act bears the signatures of Gabriel Boric Font, President of the Republic, and Nicolás Cataldo Astorga, Minister of Education, and was transcribed by Víctor Orellana Calderón, Undersecretary of Higher Education.

An appointment following an election with 60% of the votes

The appointment concludes the institution’s internal electoral process. According to the final scrutiny record of December 15, 2025, Víctor Cubillos Godoy obtained 60% of the votes cast, and record No. 20, dated December 18, 2025, from the Electoral Board of the University of Aysén, proclaimed his victory by absolute majority and declared the process closed.

The call for the rector’s election was approved by exempt university resolution No. 396, dated October 1, 2025, rectified by resolution No. 428, dated October 14, 2025, and modified by resolution No. 517, dated December 10, 2025. The provisional administrator informed the Minister of Education of the completion of the process, corresponding to the 2026-2030 period, in official letter No. 8, dated December 22, 2025.

The decree further provides that the new rector will assume his duties from the date of his appointment, for reasons of good service and without waiting for the full processing of the act.

The departure of Urra and the provisional administration

The resignation of Enrique Andrés Urra Coloma was communicated by letter on July 26, 2024, effective from July 29 of that year, and accepted by exempt university resolution No. 202/2024, dated August 12, 2024. He had been appointed rector by Supreme Decree No. 93 of 2023, for a four-year term starting September 3, 2023.

The background of the case includes:

• Exempt resolution No. 2024-00010, dated January 4, 2024, from the Superintendency of Higher Education, which resolved the administrative procedure instructed to the institution and appointed Juan Pablo Prieto Cox as provisional administrator for two years.
• The observation formulated by the Comptroller General of the Republic when reviewing decree No. 93, which suspended the rector from his duties from the notification of the provisional administration measure, pursuant to Article 17 of Law No. 20,800.
• Memorandum No. 06/23, dated January 9, 2026, from the University Education Division of the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, which requested to proceed with the appointment.

Academic trajectory of the new rector

Víctor Luis Cubillos Godoy, identity card No. 6,229,950-9, is a licensed veterinarian from the Universidad Austral de Chile. His accredited experience in the file includes:

• Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the Universidad Austral de Chile in 1996, 2002, and 2005.
• Rector of the same educational institution in 2006 and 2010.
• Academic at the Universidad Austral de Chile in category II and I in 1997.
• Director of the project to create the Veterinary Medicine degree in 2017, from the Academic Vice-Rectorate of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
• Director of the Veterinary Medicine degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in 2019 and 2020, and tenured professor of its School of Veterinary Medicine since 2020.

The appointment returns a permanent rectoral leadership to the Universidad de Aysén after nearly two years of provisional administration, allowing the state institution of the Aysén Region to fully reintegrate into the obligations, instances, and representative bodies of the state higher education system, as highlighted by the provisional administrator himself when reporting the end of the electoral process.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,557, September 24, 2026, Section I, p. 1 (official reference: CVE 2872000).