The Rector reiterates the imperial need of a fair funding model
The need of setting a fair funding model and the urgency to set an action plan to guarantee the generational succession have been some of the highlighted issues in the speech the Rector of the UB, Joan Elias, gave during the opening ceremony for the academic year 2019/2020, held today in the Historical Building. The opening lecture, titled “Ethics as an essential factor in the academic life”, was given by Professor Norbert Bilbeny, from the Faculty of Philosophy. The ceremony was opened by the secretary-general, Belén Noguera, who presented the annual report of the academic year 2018/2019. Other participants in the ceremony were the Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Catalan Government, M. Àngels Chacón, and the President of the Board of Trustees of the UB, Joan Cornominas.
The need of setting a fair funding model and the urgency to set an action plan to guarantee the generational succession have been some of the highlighted issues in the speech the Rector of the UB, Joan Elias, gave during the opening ceremony for the academic year 2019/2020, held today in the Historical Building. The opening lecture, titled “Ethics as an essential factor in the academic life”, was given by Professor Norbert Bilbeny, from the Faculty of Philosophy. The ceremony was opened by the secretary-general, Belén Noguera, who presented the annual report of the academic year 2018/2019. Other participants in the ceremony were the Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Catalan Government, M. Àngels Chacón, and the President of the Board of Trustees of the UB, Joan Cornominas.
The rector started his speech putting emphasis on the importance of the project CHARM-EU, led by the UB, as one of the selected projects by the European Commission within the first fifteen alliances of European alliances and the only one led by a Catalan university: “It should be an honor to have the UB leading this mission”. Elias noted that the motto in CHARM-EU is to “reconcile humanity with the planet” and it goes for everyone.
Then, Elias called for a funding model that attends the urgent needs coming from the current economic constriction, and reminded the attendants about the need to recover the level of funding prior the crisis. “This recovery of the current funding should go with an investment plan, we estimate about 100 million euros per year”, noted the rector, and added that an increase in resources should not appear due a raise in university fees, because then the economic effort moves into the families. “The claim is aimed at public powers that recognize the university as a social priority, and therefore, should ensure its financial suficency”. In addition, the rector noted that “it is necessary to have an action plan for the PDI and PAS staff, whose age pyramids are based on an average of 55-60 years old without a base of young people who can ensure the generational succession”.
“Ethics are essential in the academic life”
Norbert Bilbeny talked about the importance of ethics in the university field. He noted that ethics tear us from university bad praxis and leads us towards a good praxis in research, encourages us to apply rigour and professionality to reach excellence. “Bad praxis are rejectable not only for themselves but for their disastrous consequences in the prestige of an academic label, a work group, and of course, personal experience, truncated by an inappropriate way of working. In academic life, ethics are essential”, he stated.
“It has been proven that where there is honesty there is no corruption, and where there is no corruption, everything works better”, stated Bilbeny. Also, he mentioned plagiarism: “It is the worst way of appropriation of anotherʼs person intellectual authorship. It is a crime and bad praxis. The University has to report such behavior and take measures against it, as well as provide with the sources to help detect and stop them”, he noted.
Another concept Bilbeny touched on is veracity. “A lack of veracity should be reported and avoided, because cheating is a bad praxis affecting not only the actor but also the equality of opportunities and recognition of skills and merits of others”. Bilbeny appealed to being responsible, freedom, justice, equality, support and cooperation as principles in the statutes of democratic universities, which are included in the Code of Ethics the University of Barcelona has. “We have to remind the rooms and laboratories that integrity and good practices are essential for the adventure of knowledge. If Catalan universities kept their positions in the rankings despite the last economic crisis, it is thanks to the talent and effort made by most of their members and thanks to their fair game”, he concluded.
During the ceremony, the President of the Board of Trustees gave a speech and gave the awards to teaching quality corresponding to the academic year 2018/2019, and insisted on the fact that public universities are at a critical point. Corominas highlighted that “it is essential to create political consensus to guarantee an improvement in the university”. In this sense, he regretted higher education is not part of political priorities and noted this situation should change.
After the Secretary-General gave the medals of the University to the teaching and research staff and the administration and services staff who retired last year, M. Àngels Chacón gave her speech and noted that “about 30% of the students in the Catalan university system are in the UB and this means the University has done well”. Chacón also said the UB has to preserve and promote knowledge as a base to create a better country. Also, she said the Government wants to guarantee financial autonomy to the universities by giving additional public resources and other future measures: “We need to understand universities are a priority for the budget because this is a future investment”, she noted. She also regretted the lack of equality between men and women regarding opportunities: “if we do not use the 100% of talent we have in this country, we will be an incomplete society”. Last, the minister reported the political repression the country is undergoing, with preventive and abusive prison, and the destruction of the presumption of innocence: “We cannot go on like nothing happened”, she concluded.