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25 October 2017 | Posted by Editorial Team La Salle Universities

Jaume Duch opens the academic course of the URL and analyzes European parliamentary communication

On October 11 the URL opened its academic year 2017/2018 in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Communication and International Relations Blanquerna-URL. The act, chaired by the rector of the URL, Josep Maria Garrell, was attended by the president of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Llull Foundation, Josep Martínez-Rovira; of the counselor of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Santi Vila; of Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona, Joan Josep Omella; of the secretary of the Board of Trustees of the URL and president of the Blanquerna Foundation, Salvador Pié; and the general secretary of the URL, Anna Berga.

The opening of the event was given by the president of the Board of Trustees of the URL, Josep Martínez-Rovira, who emphasized that "it is a duty for us all to work for this project that we all love, and that has persistently positioned itself in a remarkable place within the university system, continue to cultivate excellence in all areas and maintain the social prestige achieved. " The general secretary of the URL, Anna Berga, read the summary of the Report of the 2016-2017 course and then the Extraordinary Doctoral Prizes of the 2016-2017 course URL was delivered. Jaume Duch Guillot, spokeswoman and general director of Communication of the European Parliament, gave the inaugural lecture "Communicate today to prepare tomorrow's Europe."

For Duch "the twenty-first-century university must be by European force, to fully benefit from the advantages linked to the free movement of people, of the creation of the European Higher Education Area, it must bet on supranational research policies and ensure its participation in the Great European projects in this area. Duch has stressed that "universities contribute decisively to obtain more developed and competitive countries, but above all define the models of society."

Following on from the counselor of Enterprise and Knowledge Santi Vila, who valued the public utility of the URL and commented that it is an example of how to defend the common good from private initiatives: "Thank you very much for teaching the world that from a Social and private initiative can be made a public service. "

Next, Cardinal Archbishop Juan José Omella highlighted the values and identity of Christian inspiration of the URL and encouraged "to cultivate ethical conscience, social conscience and political conscience that is capable of working from the university environment creating the necessary complicities with institutions and companies, in the local and global territory, in what is closest to us and, also, in what is farthest. "

The rector, Josep Maria Garrell, emphasized the excess bureaucracy that surrounds most university procedures. As an example, the rector emphasized "the time it takes today since a faculty proposes a new degree, be it degree or master, until it can be implemented, and that if there is no impediment on the way, it is almost two years ". In this sense, "we have to ask all, but very special, to the Public Administration and its different agencies, a clear and urgent simplification of things, and that it is left to the universities to exercise our necessary autonomy."
 
The rector added that "we are far from the context that led our founding fathers to describe the framework of our beloved autonomy almost 30 years ago. We have gone, in one way or another, backwards. And it is curious to observe how this reflection is shared in a generalized way and, in fact, there are many universities that demand a little more autonomy. " The rector also said that the URL should continue to insist on a historical claim that is increasingly strong. "We ask that we treat ourselves like what we are: a university of the university system. That is, like a university more. And to our students, students of the university system must be considered. And if we say it is because it is not always the case. And I think of various social agents and the different administrations and in various media. "
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