The senate supports the designation of Josep-Eladi Baños as a candidate for rector of the UVic-UCC

79.4% of those attending with the right to vote at the meeting of the Senate of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) supported the government plan that the Professor of Pharmacology of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and candidate for the post of rector of the UVic-UCC, Josep-Eladi Baños, presented at an extraordinary meeting that took place in the UVic's Aula Magna at noon last Tuesday.

At the extraordinary session, which was attended by 286 members of the 632 convened, the community's representative on the Board of Trustees, Núria Simó, explained the selection process for the candidate, in which she participated through the selection committee, and at which Baños was elected unanimously. As stipulated in the University's Organisational and Operational Regulations, the Senate meeting was chaired by the president of the FUB Board of Trustees and mayor of Vic, Anna Erra, who thanked the acting rector Joan Masnou for his work at the head of the institution over the last six months. The Senate gave the acting rector, who was seated in the front row of the Aula Magna, a long round of applause.

Action plan to make the UVic-UCC the "benchmark for universities in Catalonia in the next decade"

Baños explained that his plan is based on three objectives that he wants to achieve, in seven working areas. The objectives are to ensure excellence in the University's areas of work, to facilitate the professional development of the university community, and to make the University into a territorial and international benchmark. According to Baños, these milestones involve placing people at the institution's "strategic front line." This is the first of the seven areas outlined by the candidate for rector. It involves working to ensure that students have a "programme of fairness in access to the University" and facilitating "their integration into employment after they have graduated," the administrative and services staff having "a necessary evaluation and promotion plan that gives them access to higher professional categories" and takes into account a balance between family and working life, and lecturers having a professional career with "transparent and balanced" criteria, teaching being a "fundamental aspect of lecturers' work" and the balance with family life not being penalised in their academic career. He placed himself at the community's disposal, and gave assurances that he "will not be a rector shut away in an ivory tower" who is unable to solve problems that he "is unaware of."

The second area is teaching, which according to Baños "must enable professional skills to be acquired," develop critical thinking, social consciousness and the tools to "for autonomous learning." Baños, who is a leading figure in the field of teaching innovation, emphasised that the UVic-UCC must develop a new educational model "that goes beyond the teaching model" and which includes "cross-disciplinary training, in which for example students of Medicine and Nursing can be trained together," the adoption of "models based on independent learning" and the creation of a translational pedagogy centre. According to Baños, this centre must do research, identify new training models, test them and then implement them. The candidate believes that these formulas constitute "twenty-first century teaching."

The third line is research and knowledge transfer, which the candidate for rector bases on scientific output and the return to society. The fourth is putting down roots in the territory in order to "serve the society where it is located" by means of "reinforcing the links between the FUBalmes and the FUBages." Baños described the federation as "fundamentally important" and made a commitment to exploring partnerships with other county capitals such as "Igualada, Moià and Santa Coloma de Farners." The fifth working area is the institution's international outreach, and the sixth is to obtain "adequate funding" to make the university's policies sustainable. He argued that the programme agreement with the Government of Catalonia must be "reviewed to reach 30% of the initial grant to meet current and future needs."

Finally, in the seventh area, he called for ethical behaviour by the institution by means of compliance with principles of transparency that ensure that measures are taken "according to criteria of justice and fairness." Baños asked for support to engage in an "exciting challenge" which he believes "will make the UVic-UCC into the university benchmark in Catalonia in the next decade." According to the candidate for rector, the University has the elements and "resilience" to become a milestone, in the same way as the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) were at their inception.

After the decision of the Senate, the Board of Trustees must ratify the candidate and appoint him as rector on December 17. His term of office will begin on 7 January, when he will replace Joan Masnou, who has been the acting rector of the UVic-UCC since July 13, after Oriol Amat withdrew his candidature for personal reasons. In his term of office, Masnou has begun government measures endorsed by the Senate, which Baños has promised to complete. The candidate explained that after being appointed rector, the projects carried by the acting rector Joan Masnou will continue, in order to conclude "the magnificent work done by his team," and he asked all its members to continue and become part of his team. At the same time, he announced that he will implement the action plan with a "special focus on measures aimed at the university community and budget issues."

An election with 13 candidates

The deadline for presenting the documentation necessary to apply for the position of rector expired on 15 October, with 13 people having submitted the documents required. Three of these candidates met the requirements that were specified in the call. The Selection Committee studied them and agreed to refer Baños' candidature to the Executive Committee of the FUB Board of Trustees for the Board to designate him. The selection committee was chaired by the first deputy mayor of Vic, Dr. Josep Arimany. The other members were the Councillor for Education and Universities of Manresa City Council, Dr. Mercè Rosich, on behalf of the FUBages; Dr Francesc Xavier Grau, representing the Government of Catalonia, Joan Font representing civil society and a Trustee representing the Senate, who was the lecturer and researcher Dr Núria Simó. The committee also included four external academics, who were the university professor of the UAB and former president of the College of Doctors Dr Miquel Vilardell, the former General Secretary of the Inter-University Board of Catalonia Dr Claudi Alsina, the director of ICREA Dr Antoni Huerta and the former candidate for Rector of the UVic-UCC Dr. Oriol Amat.

Biography

Josep-Eladi Baños Díez (Sabadell, 1958) is a Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Pharmacology at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). He is the director of the Educational Research Group in Health Sciences (2017) and the Government of Catalonia's Margalida Comas Programme for teaching excellence in the Catalan universities (2017). In the administrative field, he has been the vice-rector for Teaching and Academic Planning (2005-2013) and Vice-dean of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (2004-2005). He was a lecturer in Pharmacology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1983-2002), a visiting lecturer at the University of Chile (2003-2011) and an associate of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (2009-2011). He is a leading figure in the field of teaching innovation, and he specialises in the application of problem-based learning models and the use of humanities (cinema, literature and television series) in teaching. He has authored or co-authored more than six hundred publications, of which seventy are in the field of university education. He has received several awards for teaching quality, including the third national prize for research and educational innovation from the Ministry of Education and Science (2006) and four Vicens Vives awards for teaching innovation from the Government of Catalonia (2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015).