Meeting in Barcelona of the Ibero-American network of higher education centres CINDA

The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Institute for Lifelong Learning (IL3), was opened by the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, and the executive director of the CINDA, Álvaro Rojas. A round table was held on the challenges in the field of cybersecurity in universities, led by Xavier Triadó, vice-rector for Digitalisation Policy at the UB, and Miguel Bravo, general director of Administration at the Universidad del Pacífico, in Peru. Challenge-based learning was also addressed, with the participation of Sergio Villanueva, delegate of the rector for CHARM-EU, who explained the experience of this European university, and the intervention of Arturo del Villar (from the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo) and Ramon Bragós (professor at Universitat Politènica de Catalunya, UPC). In the afternoon, the lecturer from the UB’s Faculty of Philosophy Begoña Roman gave the conference “Ethical challenges in the context of artificial intelligence”. 

Members of two internal CINDA networks took part in the sessions at the UB: the network of academic vice-rectorships and the network of vice-rectorships for administration and finance. The day before, a meeting of the network of academic vice-rectorships was held at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and tomorrow, 24 May, the UPC will host several networking events. 

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education is bringing about a significant transformation in the teaching and learning process. The complexity of this topic generates an intense debate and, in this sense, the meeting of the two CINDA networks aims to carefully and critically analyse AI in universities in the context of both formal and lifelong learning. 

CINDA currently includes universities in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. On the one hand, the network of academic vice-rectorates has as its central focus the quality of university education, with special concern for the transformation of didactic processes. CINDA carries out the Transformation of Learning, Teaching and Evaluation project. On the other hand, the network of vice-rectorates for administration and finance has as its core the strengthening of university management, with a specific emphasis on sustainability and efficiency. Along these lines, the University Administration and Finance Observatory has been promoted.