THE UNIVERSITY OF LLEIDA

AT THE UNIVERSITYOF LLEIDA, TEACHING IS + CONCEIVED IN TERMS NOT ONLY OF THE LOCAL BUT ALSO THE NATIONAL DEMAND, ESPECIALLY IN VIEW OF THE DENSITY OF BARCELONA'SUNIVERSITY POPULATION. SIMILARLY, THE RESEARCH MUST ALSO TAKE ON A NATIONAL, EUROPEANAND GLOBAL DIMENSION.

MANUEL LLADONOSA I VALL-LLEBRERA PROFESSOR OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. UNlVERSlTAT DE LLEIDA

ver since Lleida lost its old Estu- When the University of Cervera was Spain led to the appearance of the uni- di General at the beginning of moved to Barcelona in the nineteenth versity delegations and colleges al1 over the eighteenth century, there century, further education became even the country. was no university education available more inaccessible for this region, and Thus in 1968 studies in Law were ini- in the city, though during the eighteenth although the local authorities asked for tiated, followed by the Arts in 1971. century western Catalonia was able to the return of the university institution Later came courses in Agricultura1 En- benefit from the nearby University of to Lleida, the request was in vain. The gineering, the conversion of Teacher Cervera. This replaced al1 other centres University of Lleida then became one Training courses to university level, of further education in Catalonia, of our historians' fields of investigation courses in Medicine, and in the last few which along with that of Lleida were until, towards the second half of the years in Business Studies, Computer abolished following the Catalan defeat 1960s, the great demand for university Studies and Nursing, as well as the asso- in the War of Succession. courses which was arising throughout ciated colleges of the INEF, On 12 December 199 1, the Catalan Par- academic activities -scientific, educa- liament at long last passed the law tional, cultural, etc.- which will allow founding the University of Lleida by com- the training of good professionals, spe- bining these centres which until then were cialists and administrators, and also distributed arnongst the University of help the local inhabitants both to find Barcelona, the Polytechnic University their place in our region and our of Catalonia and the Autonomous Uni- u u,; country and to reach out to new cultural versity of Barcelona. The new univer- and human horizons and universal rea- sity started life with a population of " m3 lities. The University of Lleida, then, 8,000 students, 500 teaching staff and B&LA must answer to the society's educatio- some 150 administrative aiid service nal demands and to its need for impro- staff, in round figures. The appoint- vement at the same time as offering an ment of an Administrative Committee open window to the world. under the presidency of Dr Víctor Siu- The city of Lleida and its area of in- rana i Zaragoza was another step in the fluence has an uncertain future before it institutibnalization of further education -this is undeniable. Our region is in in Lleida, completed in the 1992-93 need of mobilizing projects that will academic year with the approval of the unite administrations and the public id University's departments by the provi- favour of transformations in its eco- sional senate, and the initial sessions of nomy, industrialization, the improve- the constituent senate in May 1993, ment of communications, the environ- which elected Dr Jaume Porta as Rector ment, cultural infrastructures, etc. The of the University of Lleida and started University could become one of these the process of drawing up the Statutes. ambitious projects, could help form one As the basis of its educational offer, the of the driving forces -not the only one, new University of Lleida plans to pro- of course-, could make a dynamic con- vide training in Agriculture (the only tribution to education, technology, course in Catalonia in the second cycle), science, culture and thinking. in Forestry and Food Technology, in But the University of Lleida must not Technical Industrial Engineering, Com- forget that it forms part of Catalonia's puter Studies, Business Studies and public university service and that its Market Techniques and Research, in students come from al1 over Catalonia Law, in Medicine and Nursing, in the and even Spain. This means that the educational field with the Teacher Lleida's university courses will undoub- new institution's planning and develop- Training School and the degree course in tedly have to be enlarged at some point ment must take into account a far grea- Psychopedagogy, and in the humanities in the future so as to make them truly ter catchment area than just one part of with seven qualifications in the Arts complete and attractive, although ob- Catalonia. The teaching must be con- (Catalan, Castilian, French and English viously this will not be a duplication of ceived not only in terms of the local but Philology, History, History of Art, and everything to be found elsewhere. For also the national demand, especially in Geography). example, the saturation of the school of view of the density of Barcelona's uni- The inhabitants of western Catalonia Economics in Barcelona argues in fa- versity population. Similarly, the re- and the Pyrenees, as well as of other vour of decentralizing teaching in this search must also take on a national, Catalan and Aragonese regions, will subject and offering courses in Lleida. European and global dimension. thus have a balanced offer of first and There also seems to be a certain short- The university authorities must there- second cycle qualifications, with the age in the science offer. Perhaps the agri- fore feel they are responsible for an edu- emphasis shared between technical stu- cultural or medical coileges could offer cational centre offering a powerful dies, medicine, social sciences and hu- some kind of training in new fields such enough stimulus to attract teachers, man sciences, avoiding both an exces- as biotechnology, etc. technicians and students from different sive specialization in a single field and Al1 in all, the University of Lleida pre- places. This calls for a policy and stra- the scattering characteristic of the Bar- sents a stimulating challenge both for tegy of staff training, an innovative ca- celona centres. Al1 this also provides the students and for the society. The dia- pacity in the teaching, a creative re- opportunity to combine applied and ba- logue between the two will be a decisive search policy and an understanding of sic research, as well as a universal ap- factor for the success of this educational the underlying social trends in Catalo- proach and local promotion. The merg- venture. nia, Spain, Europe and the world. There ing of colleges from different universi- Our region is certainly in need of reno- is little doubt, however, that the first ties and with different backgrounds vation in its agriculture and its service priority will be to find the financia1 and could also further enrich the offer avai- sector, of research to keep us abreast of human resources necessary for this en- lable in Lleida. European development, of teaching and terprise. •