Annual Report

Annual Report THE 2005-2006 ACADEMIC YEAR AT THE UB Foreword from the Rector The 2005-2006 academic year - the Annual Report for which you will find immediately after this foreword - has been my first complete academic year in charge of the governing bodies of the University of Barcelona. Having spent more than a year as head of this University, I count myself extremely fortunate to represent not only one of the most prestigious educational and social institutions in Catalonia, but also one of the leading universities in Spain and within the European Union. Thanks to the efforts of all of its members, the UB is firmly establishing itself as a recognized university of excellence, and one that enjoys considerable social recognition for its commitment to the economic and social development of Catalonia and Spain. Today, the UB is held in high regard around the world, as shown by several indicators published by international bodies whose job it is to measure the quality of higher education institutions. This Annual Report provides insights into much of the intensive activity being undertaken in this University. This work is a clear reflection of the effort and commitment dedicated to it by so many individuals including academic staff and administrative and services. Similarly, my thanks to all the students of the UB, without whom there would, quite simply, be no university. Your dedication to your studies, your involvement, your confidence and enthusiasm for all that you must do, makes everything possible or, at least, much more feasible and achievable. Yet, beneath the facts and figures, and beyond the various activities of the UB captured in this Annual Report, I should like to emphasize the dynamic and thriving nature of this University, which depends upon the rich diversity of the members of the university community and the confidence and conviction of all those that belong to this great University. Màrius Rubiralta, Rector I. THE 2005-2006 ACADEMIC YEAR AT THE UB 2005-2006 Annual Report The activity and work undertaken during the 2005-2006 academic year by the main governing bodies of the UB has been intense and conducted in many areas of university activity, as will become apparent throughout this Annual Report – an overview of the first academic year in which the government of the University has been under the leadership of Màrius Rubiralta and the Rector’s team, who took office on 9 June 2005. This chapter provides a summary of this activity and its principal objectives. It also examines the work undertaken by the UB Group, which comprises various entities that are either promoted by the University or in which the University actively participates. The aim of the Group is to further the work of the University, based on the adoption of joint strategies and common goals. Finally, this chapter looks at the development of the University on its various campuses throughout the city, a process that has experienced major changes during the 2005-2006 academic year and which has set the trend for the next ten to fifteen years. Governing Bodies During the 2005-2006 academic year, the University Senate met on two occasions - 29 November 2005 and 24 May 2006. At the first meeting, the Senate voted to accept the first annual report presented by Màrius Rubiralta and appointed Dr. Antoni Mirambell as the new Ombudsman. The Senate also passed the regulations governing the elections to the Senate of academic staff and administrative and services personnel. The primary purpose of the second meeting was the formal constitution of the new Senate following the elections held by the student body, academic staff and administrative and services personnel between March and April 2006. The newly-constituted Senate also appointed its twenty representatives to sit on the Governing Council. The Governing Council - the University’s collegiate governing body - has held seven meetings during the 2005-2006 academic year and exercised its duties in the following areas: organization of courses and teaching, research, human and financial resources and drafting budgets. The Governing Council passed the Criteria to be adopted in designing the Official Postgraduate Programs and, subsequently, agreed to the proposals presented before submitting them to the Catalan Government, the Generalitat; it passed the Institutional Project for Teaching Policy and the Regulations governing the evaluation and assessment of studies; it adopted the agreement to eliminate two UB courses – Higher Degrees in Public and Private Security and Social Education; it agreed to several teaching appointments in the Serra Húnter Program; it created three new UB Institutes and agreed to the UB’s participation in various institutes promoted by the Generalitat, including the Biomedicine Research Institute, the Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia, the Institute of Climate Sciences of Catalonia and the International Health Research Centre of Barcelona (CRESIB); it adopted the Regulations governing the international mobility of UB students; and agreed to the fees charged for services during 2006 and, finally, agreed to accept the University budget for 2006. In the meeting held on 8 March 2006, the Governing Council also made known its position on the reform of the Universities Act, based on a text drafted by the representatives of the Senate on the Governing Council which, in accordance with an agreement reached at a meeting of the Senate on 29 November 2005, formed a Commission for this purpose. Among the various consultative bodies, the Conference of Deans and Directors of Centres, as well as the Advisory Council, have held a number of meetings, exercising their consultative powers and the other functions conferred upon them by the University Statutes. The Conference has met regularly, usually before each meeting of the Governing Council, in order to deal with issues arising and to prepare appropriately for the meeting of the main governing body. In addition, two of its meetings were dedicated to analysing and debating the University’s provision for continuing education, with particular reference to the work of IL 3 - indeed one of the meetings was held in the new 22@ District premises of the institute. During the 2005-2006 academic year, the Advisory Council has been concerned with three main issues that benefit from the perspective that a body of this nature can provide. First, it has analysed the financial situation of the University and one of the members of the Advisory Council, Dr. Anton Costas, has presided over a commission set up to study and analyse this question. Second, the Council concluded its study and presented a document reflecting on the interaction between teaching and research in the activity of the university’s academic staff. Finally, the Council dedicated considerable efforts to analysing the proposed reform of the Universities Act presented by the Ministry of Education and Science and the resulting working document enabled the Senate’s representatives on the Governing Council, constituted as a Commission, to prepare the position that would be adopted by the Governing Council at a meeting on 8 March 2006 on the reform of the Universities Act. The UB Group The University of Barcelona Group is a group of entities with legal autonomy over their capital, at the heart of which is the University of Barcelona, the instigator and founder of these entities and in which it has a majority holding. The entities include the Barcelona Science Park Foundation, the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, the Josep Finestres Foundation, the UB Solidarity Foundation, UB Cultural and Scientific Innovation and UB Virtual. Other members of the Group include the Agustí Pedro Pons, Montcelimar, Amigó Cuyàs, and Guasch Coranty Patrimonial Foundations. In addition to the activities outlined in subsequent chapters, the main undertakings of the UB Group have been the establishment of a new structure for continuing learning programs and on-line learning with the founding of the IL 3 Institute, taking up the challenges previously managed by Les Heures Continuing Learning and UB Virtual. In this way the activities begun in June 2005 in a range of different areas have been consolidated. Actions have also been initiated in the financial affairs of the various entities of the UB Group, in an attempt at guaranteeing their financial independence. Thus, in addition to the merging of UB Virtual and Les Heures Continuing Learning, a financial viability plan has been drafted for the Josep Finestres Foundation. Elsewhere, the Postgraduate Agency has been consolidated as the main instrument for ensuring the quality of postgraduate and master’s courses organized within the UB Group. In other areas where quality issues have not been given such a key role, as is the case of knowledge and technology transfer, the role of the Agency for Assessing and Marketing Research Results (AVCRI) has been strengthened. This Agency seeks to coordinate and strengthen existing structures within the UB Group for knowledge and technology transfer, an objective that must be stressed in university activity. UB Campus Organization Plan The Governing Council was regularly up-dated about the situation regarding the implementation of the existing long-term investment plan as well as proposals for the future investment plans for the period 2007-2012, which still awaits the approval of the Generalitat. This, and in particular the debate that took place in the meeting of the Governing Council on 11 November 2005, served to determine the organization of the UB under a global plan based on a campus concept, with specifically defined areas of university activity and adopting a global, integrated and integrative approach, which promotes opportunities for coexistence in the heart of the university community. On this matter, and related to the investment plans presented to the Generalitat, the UB has proposed the rationalization of its campuses, establishing specialist areas within wide areas of knowledge, redistributing some of the faculties and determining the role it should adopt as an urban model of university campuses integrated within the city and metropolitan area.

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