Last Saturday 16 October, this year's Student Academic Conference (SAC) kicked off with its opening event under the theme ‘caring for society’.

The SAC international conference has been incorporated into the University for the first time, replacing the former UIC Barcelona Forum, the institution’s well-known university conference held annually since 2010. This year, however, the University’s department of Personal Development and Institutional Culture, together with the Academic Committee formed by Dr Iñigo Ugalde and Dr Marc Grau, wanted to focus more on the internationalisation and innovation of the UIC Barcelona Forum, and it has therefore been replaced by the SAC, a conference that takes place in numerous European and American countries.

The opening ceremony and presentation of the SAC – Caring for Society at the University began with a reception and breakfast. Following the welcome, the conference’s student co-organisers, Eugenia Urgellés and Álvaro Rovira, gave a presentation on the SAC’s format and information related to the its legal conditions, calendar, etc.

The presentation was attended by Dr Marc Grau, lecturer of Social and Family Policy at the Faculty of Education Sciences. Grau briefed the audience on the theme of the conference, ‘caring for society’, and how this concept can be addressed and integrated into all fields of knowledge.

After the SAC's welcome and introduction speeches, Ousman Umar, founder of the NGO Nasco Feeding Minds, gave an opening lecture about his personal story and that of the NGO.

In his presentation, Umar encouraged students to “be resilient and overcome the difficulties that every worthwhile project will come across throughout its journey”. The speaker stressed that he has “a very different way of looking at cooperation from most organisations”, since he believes that “people in need should be enabled through training and education, so that they are the ones to improve the circumstances in their country and do not need to emigrate”. In this regard, his NGO is the only one working for Africa and being run by an African emigrant.

The event ended with a Q&A session that opened up a conversation between Umar and the audience members, following which the participation schedule and categories were announced, culminating on Saturday 2 April 2022 with the official Caring for Society Conference.

Around 50 students from UIC Barcelona and other universities in Catalonia attended the conference, along with lecturers and student advisors from the University, and participants from past years’ events.