Rector Margarita Arboix and President Carles Puigdemont meet

Meeting between Carles Puigdemont and Margarita Arboix — Photos by Jordi Bedmar, Generalitat de Catalunya

Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Margarita Arboix spoke with Catalonia's head of government, Carles Puigdemont, at an institutional meeting which took place on 11 July at the Palau de la Generalitat.

11/07/2017

At the meeting, Rector Arboix invited President Puigdemont to participate in the celebrations which will be held in commemoration of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's fiftieth anniversary (1968-2018), which will begin on 21 September with the official inauguration of the new - 50th - academic year. The event will take place at the Monastery of Sant Cugat, the site where the first UAB inauguration took place in 1968. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former Director-General of UNESCO, will offer the inaugural speech.

The commemorative programme will start in the 2017/18 academic year, with the main event taking place on or around the 6 June 2018 - the day on which the university was founded - and continue on into the 2018/19 academic year, with the aim of remembering the past, analysing the present and, particularly, preparing the future of the university: “The celebrations will not only be festive; they will give us the opportunity to reassess the future of our University", Rector Arboix explained to the president.

Concerns about Funding

The meeting also served for the rector to communicate her concern about the problem Catalonia's universities in general and the UAB in particular is facing with a lack in funding. Problems such as the loss of talent and the deterioration of infrastructures make it more urgent than ever to establish a fair and long-lasting financial system.

Rector Arboix defended the crucial role played by the university in constructing the present and future of our society and warned that the serious problem caused by the inability to hire new and young people at university may soon reach a point of no return.