The Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona) today officially kicked off the 2024-25 academic year with a formal ceremony in the university's Aula Magna, which featured an opening speech by Blanca Sorigué, director general of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB). The event was attended by about 400 people, including academic authorities, rectors of different Catalan universities and members of the university community.

The businesswoman and general director of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Blanca Sorigué, gave the opening speech. Under the title “The transformative power of female leadership”, Sorigué encouraged students to "cultivate motivation and the desire to learn" because "this is what will allow them to face any situation and overcome obstacles".

Blanca Sorigué pointed out the need for students to “be up to date with innovations” and made it clear that, to achieve success, four ingredients are needed: self-confidence, resilience and being able to see beyond to innovate”.  In her opinion, success comes from “doing what one likes to do in order to have an impact on others and on society”.

Sorigué insisted that, in a world “in full transformation” we need “to be able to constantly adapt to changes,” as “we are already doing in the CZFB, where we are creating the cathedral of Industry 4.0”. To do this, “we have to be learning all the time.”
In her speech, the director of the CZFB, the first woman to hold the presidency of this century-old institution, stressed that the “ecosystem” that UIC Barcelona has is “a network of knowledge, a great value to be preserved” and reminded students that “the most important thing is to have attitude, the most sought-after skill by companies today”. “Attitude is commitment to oneself, learning, making changes and adding value to others and society as a whole,” she concluded.

In turn, the secretary general of the Consell Interuniversitari de Catalunya, Laura Roman, highlighted the importance of UIC Barcelona “within the Catalan university system” and praised “how it has strengthened its studies in a coherent, well-adjusted and high-quality manner”, as well as “its commitment to those areas that help make a better society”. In this regard, she went on to point out that the university has positioned itself “in an important way in areas that affect the daily lives of citizens, such as health and education”. According to Roman, “In a society with an ever-ageing population, health is becoming increasingly important. Hence the importance of training professionals and the creation of master's degrees such as those in dentistry, which demonstrate a firm commitment to promoting the area of science and health,” she added.

Challenges for the future

In his speech, the rector of UIC Barcelona, Dr Alfonso Méndiz, who inaugurated the 2024-2025 academic year, spoke about the University's challenges over the next three years: “focused research, digitisation, the creation of a structure and a wide range of master's and postgraduate programmes, the redesign of the academic career in accordance with the new state legislation and a strong drive for social commitment.”

Dr Méndiz recalled that the University is developing the UIC 28 Strategic Plan, a plan that integrates 79 projects, around four strategic objectives: “attracting, retaining and developing talent, internationalisation, improving governance, digitalisation and infrastructures, and growth in research and knowledge transfer”.