Statement to the scientific community and administrations to demand urgent actions supporting Ukrainian students and lecturers
Last Thursday, March 10, the University of Barcelona organized the event “Invasion in Ukraine: stop the war, stand for peace” in the Paranimph of the Historical Building of the University. The event closed with a speech by the rector Joan Guàrdia, titled “Universities: innovation for peace, democracy and human rights”.
The UB community addresses the Catalan and international scientific community to demand urgent actions to help the Ukrainian university communities whose normal activity has been interrupted due to the Russian invasion. On the premise that the University of Barcelona will never make distinctions between nationalities among the victims of a war, nor should it be done by any university, we suggest working on these five blocs:
Last Thursday, March 10, the University of Barcelona organized the event “Invasion in Ukraine: stop the war, stand for peace” in the Paranimph of the Historical Building of the University. The event closed with a speech by the rector Joan Guàrdia, titled “Universities: innovation for peace, democracy and human rights”.
The UB community addresses the Catalan and international scientific community to demand urgent actions to help the Ukrainian university communities whose normal activity has been interrupted due to the Russian invasion. On the premise that the University of Barcelona will never make distinctions between nationalities among the victims of a war, nor should it be done by any university, we suggest working on these five blocs:
1. Building a permanent response table, formed by released people, to provide a joint response to the situation in Ukraine.
2. Setting a special budget, apart from the general budget, to receive students and staff from the involved universities so that they can continue with their personal and academic life.
3. Jointly working on an online university for Ukraine so that those students whose academic activity has been interrupted can, at least, follow the general topics the Catalan universities can publish to keep the academic tone. The attendance to these sessions should be certified so that their academic curriculum gets the accreditation.
4. Coordinate our community so it can welcome those people who have fled from terror.
5. Facilitate residency procedures to those people fleeing the war due to the terrible situation they are living in and prevent them from undergoing another discrimination.
The University of Barcelona, through the Rector, extends this petition to the Catalan Department of Universities and Research, to the presidency of the Catalan Association of Public Universities, the Ministry of Universities, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the international networks such as the League of European Research Universities (LERU).
The University of Barcelona calls on the universities of the world to ask their teaching staff to dedicate five minutes of their lessons to talk about peace and conflict.
The University is still, and will be even more during these times, the place where science shows that another world is possible. We are doing this by playing a central role during the pandemic, and we will continue to do so with any challenge we face as human beings because this is our job, our responsibility, our commitment and our passion.
Barcelona, March 14, 2022.