The Board of Trustees of the FUB designates Oriol Amat as candidate for the rector of the UVic-UCC

The Board of Trustees of the Balmes University Foundation has designated Oriol Amat as a candidate for the position of rector of the UVic-UCC. At the plenary session that took place on Thursday 19 April, the University's trustees selected Amat as a candidate to present his programme for government to the community at an extraordinary meeting of the Senate that will take place on 3 May. The candidate will submit his programme and the Senate will vote on it and issue a non-binding report on its content. After the community has given its opinion, the Board of Trustees will appoint Amat, or may open new proceedings to select the holder of the highest academic post at the University for the next 4 years.

At a press conference held in the Doctor Junyent room at the Casa Convalescencia just after the meeting of the Board of Trustees, its president and the mayor of Vic, Anna Erra, said that the election "is a mixture of pride and satisfaction. Pride because we have found that the UVic-UCC is an attractive proposition, and satisfaction because the election mechanism has been thorough and transparent." The director general for Universities of the Government of Catalonia and the patron of the FUB, Josep Pallarès, highlighted the University's governance model, and said that the selection process is unique in Catalonia, but "equivalent and comparable to the normal procedures in the majority of international universities." Pallarès emphasised that the candidate's programme is based on "enthusiasm and the cohesion of the university community, putting people at the centre of the project, university excellence and maximising the scientific, economic, social and cultural impact."

Selection process

The deadline for presenting the documentation necessary to apply for the position of rector expired on 16 March, with 13 people having submitted the documents required. Of those, five fulfilled the requirements stipulated in the call, and at its meeting on 21 March, the Selection Committee studied them and agreed to pass on its proposal to the Executive Committee of the FUB Board of Trustees so that the Board could designate a candidate. The president of the Selection Committee for the new Rector, and the trustee of the FUB, Josep Arimany, explained that the candidate had been selected unanimously, and that "he fulfils what we were expecting of the new rector of the UVic-UCC: a research profile, an academic and scientific background, management experience and a major impact in his field." Arimany also pointed out that Amat's government plan for the University is "engaging." Mercè Rosich, the Councillor for Universities of Manresa City Council and a member of the selection committee, stressed that "the rector must be a good leader and Doctor Amat will be able to develop this federation even further."

The new rector will take over from Jordi Montaña, who finishes his second term as the holder of the highest academic post at the UVic-UCC this July. These years have seen the University federate with the Bages University Foundation, creating the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia with one campus in Vic and one in Manresa, with facilities in Granollers and in Barcelona. In addition, teaching has begun on the degree course in Medicine in the 2017-2018 academic year, with teaching units in Vic and in Manresa, and the institution has also become the most transparent institution according to the latest report issued by the Commitment and Transparency Foundation.

Biography

Oriol Amat is Professor of Financial Economics and Accounting at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where he was Vice-Rector of Economics and Information Systems and Director of the Department of Economics and Business. Amat has also been a visiting lecturer at various European, American and Asian universities.

He is the president of the Catalan Accounting and Management Association (ACCID), and is the author of several books on accounting and finance which have been translated into several languages. He was a board member of CNMV (the Spanish Commission of the Stock Exchange) between 2011 and 2015, and a member of the Member of the Government of Catalonia's Advisory Council for Catalan Economic Growth during the same period. He was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia from 2015 until 2017. He has also been a member of the Advisory Council of the PIMEC Observatory and the President of the Register of Accounting Experts.