At
midday on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, the official opening ceremony for the new
2012-2013 academic year was held in the UIC’s main lecture hall with more than
450 people in attendance. The ceremony began with a presentation on the report
for the 2011-2012 academic year by the university’s General Secretary, Belén
Castro.

Dr.
Cristina Monforte, the Director of the Nursing Department, then
introduced Dr. María Isabel Saracíbar, the Dean of the Faculty of
Nursing at the Universidad de Navarra, who was chosen by the Board of Governors
as this year's keynote speaker. The UIC has dedicated the whole of 2012 to the
Year of the Nurse. With this in mind, Saracíbar directed her
speech towards the nursing community in particular and focused on the meaning
of care.

Antoni Castellà i Clavé was next to take the floor.
He pointed out that two of the challenges of the Catalan university system are
internationalization and knowledge transfer. Castellà explained that
during these times of economic crisis, teaching about values is extremely
important. He said, “Only values will help us achieve a richer, fairer and freer
Catalonia”. He went on to say, “In 15 years, the UIC has become well
established. It’s great news for Catalonia that an initiative such as this can
be so successful”.

Lastly,
UIC Rector Pere Alavedra brought the ceremony to a
close with a speech that focused on an overview of the UIC’s 15-year history
and anticipated some of the challenges for the future. Alavedra made special
reference to the current social situation and said, “We will only get through
this crisis by transferring knowledge to SMEs. To do this, we must promote
innovation and encourage the teaching staff to work alongside companies”.

Present
at the ceremony were María de los Llanos de Luna, the Spanish
government’s delegate in Catalonia; rectors and vice rectors from various
universities in Catalonia (the Universitat de Barcelona, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Universitat de Vic and Universitat Abat Oliba) and abroad (Universidad Antonio
Guillermo Urrelo in Cajamarca, Peru); Catalan members of parliament; and
representatives from other civil and academic authorities.