At the beginning of the event, Enric Vidal, dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences, explained that “a university must serve many purposes, but above all it must work as a transformative force and for social service”, which is the main intention of Service Learning (ApS). Accordingly, Esther Jiménez, vice-rector of the University Community, encouraged everyone present to work well: “Your work serves to give your students a transformative vision.”

The conference was organised by the lecturers of the Faculty of Education Sciences Mariona Graell and Maria Teresa Fuertes, representatives of the ApS(U) CAT network, and facilitated a space for different Catalan universities to present their experience and the results obtained in their ApS projects. All speakers agreed on the enrichment of the projects resulting from the interdisciplinary work and the collaboration of students with other faculties of the university and other institutions. Fuertes stressed that since its creation in 2015, the objective of the Network has been advancement in teaching, research and knowledge transfer through service learning and institutional support is essential to guarantee the quality and sustainability of the projects.

Once the projects were laid out, in a round table the same experts answered all the questions of the attendees and opened a debate on some of the issues mentioned during the presentation. The speakers explained the methodologies they followed when combining the projects with the content of various subjects and how these have been integrated into the curricula.

Attention was also given to developing interdisciplinary work without losing active monitoring in different projects. As one of the representatives said: “Students have to respond to a problem and this type of learning is much more realistic and useful. They are showing us that there is an interest in approaching knowledge.”

The conference concluded with a workshop on interdisciplinary service learning. This was an opportunity in for attendees to share their experiences in teams through a dynamic game of creativity and dialogue.

The Catalan Universities Service Learning Network is active since 2015 and has representation in every university of Catalonia. The objectives of the initiative are to make available experiences and interdisciplinary service learning projects of diverse complexity between subjects or degrees and to set goals and challenges for the future in order to promote new educational models.