Alfonso Méndiz Noguero, who holds a PhD in Public Communication, has been named the new Dean of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences in replacement of Dr. Iván Lacasa Mas.

The UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences offers degree programmes in Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Public Relations, as well as postgraduate and master's degree programmes in Sports Journalism and a postgraduate programme in Digital Innovation Projects.

Méndiz plans to consolidate and enhance the faculty's weight in the academic community while also maintaining strong contacts with businesses to guarantee internship placements for students. The new Dean's objectives include prioritizing the academic qualifications of the teaching staff, encouraging the creation of faculty research groups and arranging for research stays at leading research centres. During his tenure as Dean, Méndiz will also aim to promote academic, institutional and personal relations with other communication sciences faculties in Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

Internationalization will also receive more attention from the Dean, given that one of his objectives will be to attract students from other parts of Spain, Latin America and the rest of the world. This will involve expanding the number of subjects taught in English. Another goal Méndiz has taken on is the challenge of achieving academic excellence as evaluated internally and by students.

Finally, Méndiz also believes in the importance of promoting the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences. He said, “We have to be proactive enough to embrace this challenge, which affects all faculties in Spain and particularly those in Catalonia, and we have to be creative enough to find new, effective formulas based on teaching and research”.

Alfonso Méndiz was a lecturer of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universidad de Málaga. Before that, he taught a course on Audiovisual Narrative and was the Assistant Director of the Department of Audiovisual Culture and Communication at the Universidad de Navarra. He studied cinema in the United States, where he obtained a Diploma in Production in Motion Pictures and Television from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1992. While living in Los Angeles, Méndiz worked at the production company of Harry Ziesmer, an assistant director for Francis Ford Coppola.

He has also taught many courses on the media, has published 14 books and has directed 12 doctoral dissertations. Of note are his publications in the fields of cinema and advertising, and his collaborations with different general-interest and film-related publications. As a result of his interest in ethical-legal matters related to communication, Méndiz has written the chapters on advertising in two university manuals on the ethical and legal aspects of information and communication: Ética de la Información y de la Comunicación (2002)and Derecho de la Información y de la Comunicación (2003).