The UB, first Catalan university to receive the visit of Minister Castells
The Minister for Universities, Manuel Castells, visited the University of Barcelona on February 28. The UB is now the first Catalan university to take part in the series of meetings “The Minister listens”, a journey to visit the fifty public universities of Spain. The objective of this initiative is to make a joint reflection with these centers to define a university state pact.
The Minister for Universities, Manuel Castells, visited the University of Barcelona on February 28. The UB is now the first Catalan university to take part in the series of meetings “The Minister listens”, a journey to visit the fifty public universities of Spain. The objective of this initiative is to make a joint reflection with these centers to define a university state pact.
During the session, Castells had a series of work meetings in the Historical Building of the UB with the rector Joan Elias and his team, as well as representatives of the student collective, the teaching and research staff and the administration and service staff.
The minister highlighted “the vital importance of this visit, considering the entity of such university like the University of Barcelona, for its dimensions and experience in teaching and research”.
The rector thanked Castells for his visit at the UB, “which shows he wants to know more about our current situation”, and for having met “different collectives of our university community, that have the right to be listened to”. “The governing team of the University of Barcelona presented the minister our objectives as well as the series of problems we are facing and the effort we make to deal with them”, noted Elias. “We told him we have the new Ministry for Universities very present, and we presented several action ways we believe that can improve our conditions. We know these are hard times for everyone, but we strongly believe that a public university like ours is committed to society, and we cannot improve it alone”, concluded the rector of the UB.
The Ministry for Universities started the series of visits “The Minister listens” this February, willing to establish a close relationship between the ministry and the university institutions. This action aims to meet directly the collectives that form the institutions as well as see the difficulties and the challenges these face as well as the project that needs to be launched. The last aim is to reach an agreement on a state pact during this legislature to promote a new Law of Universities.