Rector Javier Lafuente, new president of the Vives Network of Universities
UAB Rector Javier Lafuente Sancho will be taking over the presidency of the Vives Network of Universities, thus complying with the rotative calendar of presidents leading this instiution, which coordinated the joint actions of 22 universities in terms of higher eduation, culture and language. He takes over from the rector of the University of the Balearic Islands, Jaume Carot Giner.
The activities programmed in the institution's annual action plan will take place during his presidency, with an estimated 150 actions distributed along 16 programmes.
Rector Lafuente's presidency will be in charge of conducting the activities foreseen in the institution's annual action plan, some 150 actions distributed along 16 programmes: Communication, Culture, Students, Gender Equality, Language, Mobility, Awards and Aids, Senior Programmes, Publications, Research, International Relations, Ombuds Office and Healthy and Sustainable Universities.
Among the main activities taking place this year are from 30 March to 7 April the final phases of the Debates League at the UAB, in its secondary, upper secondary school modality, in which the question on public pharmaceutical industry and its use in the European Union (“És necessària una indústria farmacèutica pública a la Unió Europea?”) will be debated, and in its university modality, which will focus on what limits should be put on science (“Cal posar límits a la ciència?”). In May the first Senior Debate League pilot programme will be launched, for students over 50. In this third modality, the question will address whether public authorities should control the media (“Cal que el poder públic controli els mitjans de comunicació?”).
The study of life and learning conditions of students continues to be one of the main axes of this institution, which this year will publish the results of the third report on "Via Universitària: Accés, condicions d’aprenentatge, expectatives i retorns dels estudis universitaris." [University Route: admission, learning conditions, expectations and payback]. With regard to the programme on Gender Equality, new guides will be published to add to the series “Guies per a una docència universitària amb perspectiva de gènere” [University Lecturing Guides with a Gender Perspective] which currently contains 21 disciplines and a transversal guide on online university teaching.
Another of the important activities organised by the Vives Netwrok during the second half of this academic year is the celebration of the 2nd University Theatre Biennial, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and set to be held at the University of Alicante. The network also has programmed several Vives Forums, including the University Ombuds and Defenders Meeting (University of Lleida) and the Vives Forum on Digital Communication (Pompeu Fabra University).
Javier Lafuente Sancho is Chair Professor in Chemical Engineering at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has done research stays at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is director of the BIO-GLS Technology Centre, which forms part of the TECNIO centre, and head of the consolidated research group Biological Treatment of Liquid and Gaseous Effluents, Nutrient Removal, and Odours and Volatile Organic Compounds (GENOCOV). He is author of 141 publications in indexed journals.
The UAB's rector has directed the majority of more than sixty national, European and professional resarch projects in which he has been involved, in addition to over 12 PhD theses and several final projects. In addition, he has created two environmental spin-offs for the application of groundbreaking technologies for wateswate treatment. He was also the director of the Department of Chemical Engineering (2004-2010) and Vice Rector for Innovation and Strategic Projects (2016-2020), and has held other senior positions.
The Vives Network of Universities is a non-profit institution representing and coordinating the actions of 22 universities in terms of higher education, culture and language. It administers university services with the objective of contributing to the processes of economically and socially constructing and developing this Euro-Mediterranean cross-border region of universities.