Fernando Purcell Torretti

Vice President for Academic Affairs

Leads the Office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Duties

The Vice President of Academic Affairs is the official in charge of drafting and executing the University’s academic policy. 

Among his duties are:

• Proposing academic teaching policies for the undergraduate, Master's, postgraduate, medical specialties and PhD programs.
• Proposing the policies for academic staff and their career development and training.
• Proposing university student admission policies and academic inclusion policies.
• Approving University agreements with other institutions.

To review the duties of the Vice President of Academic Affairs, please read the Regulations of the Organizations that work with the Office of the President.

Career

Fernando Purcell graduated with a degree in History from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He completed a Master's degree and then a PhD in History at the University of California, Davis.
 
He is a tenured professor at the Institute of History and a researcher at the UC Global Change Center. In August 2018, he took over as Director of the College UC General Studies Program, a position he left in 2020 to become Vice President of Academic Affairs.
 
Purcell has investigated various topics in North American and Latin American history with an emphasis on transnational and global political and cultural historical processes. He has developed research on the migratory processes of Mexicans, Chileans and Irish during the California Gold Rush; on the influence of Hollywood films in Chile during the first half of the 20th century; and on the United States Peace Corps’ work on community development in South America during the Cold War.