Sustainability

Universia has invited its 1,100 members to analyse the challenges they face in serving society with regard to the delicate situation worldwide. The 2nd International Meeting of Universia Rectors , sponsored by the Santander Universities Global Division of Banco Santander, will be held in Guadalajara (Mexico) in May 2010.

More information in www.encuentroguadalajara2010.universia.net.

The multidisciplinary committees - International, Academic, Organisation and Follow-up - are in charge of organising the symposium and they get together regularly to make the preparations for the Meeting. Their members come from the different countries involved and they get together regularly to make the preparations for the Meeting.

The International Committee covers institutional matters and is chaired by José Narro Robles, rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The Academic Committee is in charge of the contents and organisation of debates, preparing papers and conclusions, and is chaired by Federico Gutiérrez-Solana, rector of the University of Cantabria and president of the Conference of Spanish University Rectors (CRUE). The Organisation Committee focuses its work on organising the activities, logistics and communication. It is chaired by Ignacio Berdugo, adviser of Santander Universities Global Division and rector of the University of Salamanca between 1994 and 2003. Finally, the Follow-up Committee is in charge of the meeting's general co-ordination and is chaired by José Antonio Villasante Cerro, assistant executive vice-president and director of Santander Universities Global Division..

Several meetings have been held during the year by the different committees that are organising the Meeting in order to continue making progress with preparations and organisation. The International Committee, for example, is making progress in defining the topics on the agenda and work categories. The picture below shows, from left to right, and top to bottom, Ignacio Berdugo, Francisco Luzón, board member and executive vice-president of Banco Santander, head of the America Division and global vice-chairman of Universia, Federico Gutiérrez-Solana, Amaro Lins, rector of the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), José Antonio Villasante, Jaume Pagès, managing director of Universia, José Narro Robles, and Marcos Martínez, country-head of Banco Santander in Mexico.

Educational institutions and research centres have already been invited from the fifteen countries (1 from Andorra, 74 from Argentina, 257 from Brazil, 57 from Chile, 60 from Colombia, 77 from Spain, 401 from Mexico, 5 from Panama, 5 from Paraguay, 65 from Peru, 20 from Portugal, 16 from Puerto Rico, 9 from the Dominican Republic, 5 from Uruguay, and 48 from Venezuela) that make up Universia, and invitations have also been sent to a large number of academic institutions from other countries such as China, the United States, Morocco, the United Kingdom and Russia, with whom the Santander Universities Global Division at Banco Santander work with in the development of different academic projects.

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Banco Santander, through Santander Universities Global Division, has celebrated in 2008 Vice-chancellors International Meeting of eight Ibero-American universities and ten British. At a conference entitled “Internationalization: Opportunities for Cooperation” eighteen vice-chancellors examined new ways of developing the following: common initiatives relating to national and international mobility for students and university staff; projects to promote knowledge transfer; and new ideas to improve work carried out jointly between academic institutions.

The meeting was also attended by the following vice-chancellors: Rick Trainer (King’s College London) who is also Chair of Universities UK; Alison Richard (University of Cambridge); Bill Wakeham (Southampton University); Glynis Breakwell, (University of Bath); Timothy O'Shea (The University of Edinburgh); Janet Beer (Oxford Brookes University); Colin Riordan (University of Essex); Stephen Hill (Royal Holloway, University of London); Brenda Gourley (The Open University); Julian Crampton (University of Brighton); Pedro Pablo Rosso (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile); Carlos Angulo (University of the Andes, Colombia); Ángel Gabilondo (Autonomous University of Madrid) who chairs the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Spanish Universities; Carolina Scotto (National University of Cordoba, Argentina); Antonio García Padilla (University of Puerto Rico); José I. Moreno (Metropolitan University, Venezuela); Fernando Seabra (University of Coimbra, Portugal) who chairs the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Portuguese Universities; and Luis Bustamante (University of Applied Sciences, Peru).

In 2005 Universia held the First International Rectors Convention, in Seville , which turned out to be the most important forum for Ibero-American university debate to date.

The convention was attended by 400 university rectors from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, who analysed the characteristics and requisites that Latin American universities would have to meet in order to help their societies to successfully face the challenges posed by today’s global, knowledge-based society.

Their conclusions were summarised in the Declaration of Seville, a reference document that contains the commitment undertaken by the universities as engines of social and economic progress.More information.