Garmendia argued that it is necessary to emerge from the economic crisis with a stronger focus on science and innovation, declaring that “universities must become genuine drivers of economic and social development”. A trained biologist who is currently involved in corporate activities, she pointed to the university’s triple mission of teaching, research and knowledge transfer and highlighted the need to adopt “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” as cross-cutting values. “Our universities have consolidated themselves as spaces for training, debate and research, where humanistic and scientific culture – two elements that are vital to our society – are revealed as two sides of the same coin.”   

She finished her lecture with an appeal to students to commit themselves to promoting social change. “The best universities in the world aren’t the best because of their facilities; they’re the best because of their students.”

The opening session was presided over by UIC Rector Dr. Pere Alavedra and began with the report on the previous academic year, read by the university’s General Secretary Belén Castro. Garmendia’s inaugural lecture was followed by a talk from Antoni Castellà, the Catalan Government’s General Secretary for Universities, who highlighted the vital role played by universities in economic recovery and the development of talent. Castellà also emphasized the ability of the Catalan education system to meet the challenge of internationalization, arguing that “we have a high-quality system with which to tackle globalization; we have talent; and in Barcelona, we have an extremely strong brand.”

Dr. Alavedra closed the session with a speech in which he drew attention to the UIC’s 15 years of history and set out a number of challenges the university will have to meet in the future. “If we want to excel, we have to work as a team. Only by working with a cooperative spirit can we achieve excellence”, he said, before adding that “at the UIC, we do this by working with the business community, as demonstrated by the number of corporate-sponsored chairs we have, which to us is the highest possible expression of collaboration between university and business.”

The session was attended by approximately 400 people, including luminaries from both the academic world and the public sector. Those present included the President of the Spanish University Rectors’ Congress (CRUE), Adelaida de la Calle; the Director of the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGUAR), Pere Pardo; the General Secretary of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia (CIC), Claudi Alsina; the Deputy Government Representative for Barcelona, Emilio Ablanedo; and the rectors of the universities of Girona, Lleida, Rovira i Virgili, Vic and Abat Oliba, among others.