The Ibero-American Universities Union meets in Madrid
The addenda signature was held in the boardroom of the International Relations Office (Pabellón de Gobierno) of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). The agreement gathers five grand academic institutions in the Ibero-American Universities Union (UIU). The participants are the universities of Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Complutense of Madrid, National Autonomous of Mexico and São Paulo. They will have the financial support of Banco Santander from the very first moment.
The addenda signature was held in the boardroom of the International Relations Office (Pabellón de Gobierno) of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). The agreement gathers five grand academic institutions in the Ibero-American Universities Union (UIU). The participants are the universities of Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Complutense of Madrid, National Autonomous of Mexico and São Paulo. They will have the financial support of Banco Santander from the very first moment.
The event in Madrid is hold a day after signing the collaboration agreement between the five universities in the boardroom of the University of Barcelona. In this meeting they have agreed on the participation of Banco Santander for his financial support in the project.
The Rector of the UCM, Carlos Andradas, thinks that June 24 has become a historical day “in which there have been two good pieces of news and a bad one”. The addenda signature and the peace process in Colombia are the good news, and the bad news was the Brexit, according to Andradas. The Rector of the Complutense said that this union is a “love story that began with other people leading the UCM and UNAM”.
The Rector of the University of Barcelona, Dídac Ramírez, highlighted the reasons for this initiative to be called union instead of alliance: “This merge is not a bunch of universities together but a sharing of common problems and interests, we have mutual institutional affect and love, and we bring reliance and recognition, as the support from Santander Universities shows”.
Enrique Graue, Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that the five institutions “represent at least 40% of the research carried out in Ibero-America”.
The General Director of the Banco Santander, José Antonio Villasante, reminded them that his institution has helped universities for years and this agreement is a “historic milestone”. Marco Antonio Zago, Rector of the University of São Paulo, commented on the rankings, which donʼt assess the most important of these universities, which is “the great impact they have on the life of their countries and regions”. Zago said these centers are “the heritage of their countries” and “the social and political life of these countries would not be the same without these universities”.
Alberto Barbieri, Rector of the University of Buenos Aires, added that the universities are “the creators of society knowledge”, so that is why it is still essential that the “virtue triangle”, made by the country, university and company, works”. The first UIU meeting will be in November and will cover on the problems of big cities.