The University of Barcelona and Planeta Formación y Universidades presented yesterday the Chair on Higher Education Studies, affiliated at the faculties of Economics and Business and Education of the UB. The new chair results from the proposal by four lecturers of the University: Amelia Díaz, Francisco Esteban, Miquel Martínez and Ernest Pons. With this chair, they aim to create a tool to delve into the reality of the current universities; analyse the action of higher education institutions in their aims, such as research and knowledge transfer, and dig into their relationships with the students and the role of the universities as the trainers of the future professionals, and more globally, citizens.
 

“The chair aims to join efforts and promote new research, as well as to contribute to a larger dissemination of the studies on higher education”, says its director, lecturer Amelia Díaz. “We want to create a network to share and build new knowledge, so people can identify the study goals and research lines that can be treated transdisciplinary. The result of this is to provide elements to develop teaching policies to deal with the challenged presented by the digital society and to train students who can deal with these too”, she continues.

For Planeta Formación y Universidades, the creation of this chair strengthens the commitment to society as the driver of people’s progress and development. The CEO of Planeta Formación y Universidades, Carlos Giménez, highlights that “one of the main axes of this project is to make knowledge transfer to have a practical approach and to be connected to the needs of the labour market, which are, at the same time, the objectives we want to reach with the twenty-two educational institutions that build up the international network of higher education of Planeta Formación y Universidades”.

Among the objectives of this chair is the creation of a space for reference and reflection on the university life and a training line in this theme. Regarding research, it will work on topics such as university identity, life conditions and the participation of the students in the university, the grant and aid system for the students, and employability. In order to work on such researches, the chair will promote the carrying out of the bachelor’s degree and master’s degree final projects on these topics, and it will provide with access to the corresponding databases and the methodological resources that allow its optimal use. Among the chair projects are several dissemination activities, such as the launch of publications, among which is a series of notebooks on higher education which would feature proposals to design policies in this field.