For the eleventh straight year, UIC Barcelona, with support from Banco Santander, through Santander Universities, has offered students the chance to earn an Alumni-Banco Santander Grant, aid accessible to university students who are members of the UIC Barcelona Alumni Group and meet the stipulated requirements, which include academic record. With these grants, the University supports students in a way that goes academic education. 

The event, presided by the rector of UIC Barcelona, Xavier Gil, the regional institutional director for Banco Santander, Luis Herrero, and the president of the UIC Barcelona Alumni Group, José Ignacio Perellada, also included José María Martínez, director of Institutions for the regional area of Catalonia at Santander Spain; José María García de los Ríos, director of Santander Universities Spain; and Matilde Meneses, head of universities for the region. 

In his speech, Luis Herrero reminded attendees that the awarding of these grants corresponds to the bank’s commitment to contributing to the advancement of people through education. Herrero pointed out that the Alumni-Banco Santander Grants programme “is one of the projects we are proudest of”, and thanked UIC Barcelona for “promoting and so adroitly maintaining this initiative, which illustrates the importance of access to higher education, the culture of hard work and the central role of universities in economic, social and cultural progress”. 

Irene Ferrer-Bonsoms, a student in the Bachelor’s Degree of Medicine, spoke on behalf of the grant recipients. “Thank you to UIC Barcelona for giving us the opportunity to become good professionals, for giving us the knowledge and tools we need to give back to society; thank you to Banco Santander for investing in talent, for investing in a good education for future professionals”, the student pointed out in her speech. 

Grants were awarded to students from virtually all degree programmes at UIC Barcelona: Medicine, Physiotherapy, Dentistry, Nursing, Advertising and Public Relations, Business Administration and Management, Bioengineering, Audiovisual Communication, Primary Education and Law.