The UB and Santander Bank reinforce their collaboration during the pandemic
The University of Barcelona and Santander Bank have ratified the collaboration agreement they have kept for more than twenty years through Santander Universidades in an online meeting presided over by the rector of the University, Joan Elias, and the president of
, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte. In the meeting, which took place on July 10, they analysed the challenges of the university -and in particular, the UB-, for the next academic year regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Barcelona and Santander Bank have ratified the collaboration agreement they have kept for more than twenty years through Santander Universidades in an online meeting presided over by the rector of the University, Joan Elias, and the president of
, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte. In the meeting, which took place on July 10, they analysed the challenges of the university -and in particular, the UB-, for the next academic year regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agreement between both institutions covers specific areas of the fields of education, employability, and entrepreneurship through economic aids and the launch of several programs. At the moment, Santander contributes to fund initiatives in the UB accounting for 1.7 million euros. This would be the case of the grants for students with economic difficulties, such as the bkUB and Conecta UB programs, and talent recruitment actions, such as the grant Master+UB and UB-Santander Awards to the top research projects from upper secondary schools. Regarding employability, it supports the program to hire predoctoral researchers. As for entrepreneurship, it supports the start-ups and spin-offs and innovation and transfer in general, as well as the program on co-work promotion.
During the meeting, both institutions analysed the current situation derived from the COVID-19 pandemic and the task of the University regarding research, digitalization, internationalization and social impact derived from the health crisis, among other aspects. The meeting also focused on the financial situation of the academic institutions and the challenges in hybrid teaching, as an alternative to face-to-face and online learning methods. In these lines, they also analysed specific aspects such as the digital gap and the adaptation of the rooms, and assessed the UB participation in Supera COVID fund, launched by Santander Bank with CRUE Spanish Universities and CSIC. Last, they analysed the measures from the Spanish Government to adapt teaching to a mixt model during the academic year 2020/2021, as well as the initiatives presented by the Catalan Government.
The University of Barcelona counted on the participation of the vice-rector for Students and Language Policy, Mercè Puig; the vice-rector for Entrepreneurship, Transfer and Innovation, Albert Cirera; the general manager, Oriol Escardíbul; and the head of the Rectorʼs Office, Dolors Baena. The participants from Santander Ban k were the institutional territorial director of Catalonia; Luis Herrero, the director of Santander Universidades and Universia España, Susana García Espinel; the director of Banca Institucional Cataluña, José María Martínez Delgado, and the director of Agreements and Patronage of Santander Universidades, José María García de los Ríos.