Portal de Murcia
www.portaldemurcia.com
This afternoon, the conference "Universities and Research, some reflections for the XXI century" was held in the Hall of Degrees of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Murcia, by José Carlos Gómez Sal, Professor of Physics of Condensed Matter .
The activity was framed in the series Seminars of the Rector, and has been directed and presented by the own Rector Jose Orihuela.
Jose Carlos Gómez Sal, is Doctor in Magnetism by the University of Grenoble and in Physical Sciences by the Complutense University of Madrid.
In 1974 he joined the University of Cantabria, where he has developed his academic activity.
Since 1987 he is Professor of Physics of Condensed Matter.
He has been President of the Research Sector of the Conference of Spanish Rectors and representative of the same in the "Working Group on Research Policy" of the European Association of Universities (WRPG).
He has been Rector of the University of Cantabria in the period 2012-2016.
Gómez Sal has made in his dissertation a tour of the university institutions in Spain throughout history, "something essential to be able to understand and analyze the current situation".
The rapporteur used the famous novel by Umberto Eco "Baudolino" to speak, from this story of the twelfth century, how the universities in Europe arise and then focus on the Spanish Universities.
He commented that, following the classics of Salamanca and Valladolid, that of Alcalá, sponsored by the great impeller of thought in Spain of the time, Cardinal Cisneros.
Gómez Sal commented on the difficulties that science traditionally encountered in breaking into universities: "Science was little connected to the university," but gradually it was advancing and introducing itself into these schools.
And he referred to important figures in the field of education in Spain as Sanz del Rio or Giner de los Ríos and such important institutions as the Free Institution of Education, the Rockefeller Institute in Spain, the International University of Santander or the Student Residence .
He commented that "The current Spanish university system was created with what remained in Spain after the Civil War, which was almost a desert."
At the beginning of the 20th century, the public universities of Murcia and Laguna, as well as the private Deusto and Comillas, were added to the historical universities.
Starting in the 1980s, there began the real proliferation of higher education centers in Spain, until the present moment, in which there are 83 universities (in the 1950s there were only 15), 51 of them public and 32 private, and assured That "Public universities are the most important social cohesion factor that there has ever been in today's society."
He stressed that to give an idea of ​​the importance of the university today in Spain, it may suffice to know that "More than a fifth of the Spanish growth of the last two decades is due to the contributions of the Spanish university system."
It provided data such as the fact that Spain is among the ninth or tenth place in the world in terms of scientific productivity and that more than 70 percent comes from universities.
The good opinion of the universities in Spain
The professor complained that "it was hard for the minister who had to deal with the issue of universities in the coming years to disqualify the system as soon as he entered," and said that "we must maintain the university as an essential public service."
He asked that "university education not be trivialized," although he lamented that "the university is not among the political priorities of our rulers," adding that "the problem is that there is also no social pressure that forces them to worry about that ".
He added that society has a good perception of the University in terms of teaching, but it does not know everything it does in research and innovation.
He said that "transfer must be understood as an essential part of the university system, but all of it, also cultural transfer is important," he said.
He welcomed the fact that, at the moment, in Europe they are realizing that for all matters relating to research, universities must be counted, and he mentioned some of the positive aspects in this field in Spain, such as, for example, our Country to occupy the fourth position in return countries in the EU 28 after Germany, Britain and France and that some of our universities have increased their participation in European projects by up to six.
"Knowledge is a power," he said, but it must be acquired by convincing those who are still not convinced of our potentiality, with concrete achievements and achieving respect for society, "he said, and ended with some ideas that he wanted to point out:
"The public university is ours, for and for the citizens and must continue to fulfill that mission.
"University and knowledge is not an expense, it is an investment in the future."
"I am convinced," he said, "that the new social models that will lead us into the future will emerge from the university, as it has been throughout the history of our millennial institution", "but from the university, Research, not the university of occurrence, "he concluded.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
Privacy policy
- Legal notice
- Cookies