Press room

Cristovam Buarque's conference at the CCCB is part of the Education Debates, an initiative of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the Fundació Jaume Bofill, with the collaboration of the Avui newspaper and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. The series of debates aims to analyse the future of education, seen as the driving force of development, social sustainability and future coexistence policies.

This forum addresses all the social actors and does not set out to be a sphere of reflection for specialists. With this aim, the conference-goers taking part in the various cycles are representative of a number of spheres of society, from business to the arts, embracing art, science, architecture, journalism, etc.

During his visit to Barcelona, Cristovam Buarque will also take part in work sessions entitled "The post-university. Thinking of the future of education". The Brazilian senator will defend the need for universities to adapt to the new era (new technologies and new ideas) if they do not want to prevent the emergence of the "post-university", an institution that "would exist parallel to the [traditional] university". Buarque will outline his theses and will argue that the main challenge facing universities today is that of reinventing themselves.

Doctor of Economics

Cristovam Buarque is a Doctor of Economics, a lecturer at the University of Brasilia (of which he was Rector from 1985 to 1989) and a member of the UNESCO Institute of Education. He is also a senator and one of the preferred candidates of the PDT (Democratic Workers' Party) for President of Brazil.

Buarque has also been Minister of Education (2003), a post in which he fought to push through real educational revolution in Brazil. For him, education is the only way to build a modern, fair and efficient country. His aims were to eliminate illiteracy, to guarantee quality state schooling for all children from the age of four, to train teachers, to modernise schools and teaching methods (including distance education) and to reform the Brazilian university system so that it could respond to the ethical and technical challenges of the twenty-first century.

During his career, Buarque has published twenty books and has collaborated on numerous books and journals and as a consultant for a number of national and international organisations. He has also been President of the United Nations Council of Universities for Peace.