Reports

The President of the European University Association (EUA) and Rector of the University of Vienna, Georg Winckler, stressed how lifelong learning is one of the most important issues to be promoted as an objective for universities post 2010. Winckler stated that only 2% of all students in Europe are aged between 30 and 50, which is much lower than in the US. He is sure that the Bologna process will favour this kind of learning. He stated that European universities have to adapt their objectives to a twofold context: the social, so as to promote education among the disadvantaged, and the international, in response to the challenge of the knowledge society and globalisation. According to the President, “the Bologna process created an attractive educational framework on an international scale, but failed to define its role on a global level”. To face up to these challenges, Winckler believes that European universities need to be given more autonomy, responsibility and funding.

Knowledge, social value

The President of the Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas (Conference of Spanish University Rectors, CRUE), Ángel Gabilondo, agrees with Winckler in terms of reinforcing the international role of the EUA and, thus, highlighted the participation in the conference of representatives from the Consejo Universitario Iberoamericano (Ibero-American University Council, CUIB). He also praised the role of European inter-university mobility, stating that “the Erasmus programme has done more for the construction of Europe than any number of political discourses”. Gabilondo believes that public universities have a duty to transfer knowledge to the society on which they are founded: “knowledge leads to social and economic well-being. Only through knowledge can we create a fairer and freer world.”

Màrius Rubiralta, Rector of the University of Barcelona, stated that universities now have to offer “the solution in a new Europe based on knowledge” and have to establish a “commitment with respect to its diversity and peoples”.

Welcome address

A number of important figures from the world of politics took part in the spring conference’s opening ceremony. The President of the Catalan government, José Montilla, stressed that “we are at a crossroads, [and need] universities to lead us towards the knowledge society”. Thus, he highlighted the so-called third mission of universities: lifelong learning. In turn, the Spanish Minister of Education and Science, focused on the development of the EHEA and its Carta Magna, underlining “the moral independence of universities in terms of political power and their role as the depositories of European humanism". Barcelona’s Mayor, Jordi Hereu, described the Catalan capital as “a great campus of knowledge”.