Jacint Jordana Casajuana (Granollers, 1962) is currently the director of the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI). He directed the Strategic Plan 2016-2025, which was prepared with the involvement of the entire university community and which will set the university’s course for the next ten years.  

— As the director of the Strategic Plan, how would you evaluate it?

— I was really excited by this project, and it was an honour to lead and promote it. I think the university needed it. It was a necessary initiative, the product of a collective reflection, at a time when the university world is undergoing a major transformation. Consequently, it was a good opportunity to reflect on UPF’s mission and strategic lines in depth. We need to go beyond local circumstances, our local community and the social and political context of Catalonia and Spain, and think about how UPF can move forward in the coming years as a more international and global university and project. The governing team is finishing up an action plan now to implement it.

— Is internationalization a key strategy for the university?

— We shouldn’t be afraid of being a global university, an international leader, one whose feet are firmly planted in Barcelona, Catalonia and Europe, but which is also known around the world for providing a prestigious education and producing top-notch research. In this regard, we have to be able to soar, without the need to always be tied to our immediate surroundings. UPF has embraced internationalization from the start, but now the Strategic Plan proposes going one step further by ensuring that all areas of the university operate in an international framework and international networks.

— Does the Plan seek to consolidate UPF’s status as a research university?

— One basic aspect that the Strategic Plan establishes, which could help us set ourselves apart as an institution, is that we conceive of a research university as a university fully committed to research, not just in certain areas, which might rightfully stand out and which should spearhead the effort. But if we really want to achieve this goal, then the entire institution, without exception, has to be internationally competitive and has to carry out high-quality research.

— What measures does the Plan propose with regard to teaching?

— The Plan modestly proposes undertaking a new revolution in teaching. This issue was discussed at length during the process of preparing the Plan. In recent years, we have made a major effort to adapt and transform our programmes in keeping with Bologna; but we shouldn’t stop there. We know that the world of education and teaching is under enormous strain and that, with the arrival of the new fully digital generations, the very process by which students learn is changing. All of this poses a challenge for our university; we need to be able to respond to all these changes, rethink the way we teach, based on more individualized attention to students and more diversified ways of learning.

— Should teaching and research be integrated?

— The Plan states the we need to link teaching and research more closely, especially in terms of the education offered to students. Our students need to understand that we are a research university, that there are many ways for them to participate in processes related to research. A lot of things are already being done. These are initiatives that are working well in a given faculty or area, but that could be adapted and spread to others, things like student internships linked to research groups, final bachelor’s or master’s degree projects conducted more within the framework of a research environment, researchers who seek students’ help for activities, etc.

— What other innovative aspects of the Plan would you highlight?

— One innovative aspect is the importance given to the cultural dimension, which is included as the university’s fourth mission. The Plan raises the need to establish greater bonds with Catalonia in general, but especially with the city of Barcelona. And one of the strongest bonds you can create with the city is through cultural activities. I would also highlight other less innovative, but equally important aspects. One is the Plan’s duration, ten years, as these kinds of plans do not usually span such a long period of time; however, we thought that it could serve as an incentive, to boost and stimulate our long-term view of this issue. Finally, as part of one of the Plan’s general areas, we are seeking to embrace a transformative and comprehensive model of social responsibility, encompassing all areas of the university.

— Did the participation, over the ten months that the process lasted, meet expectations?

— We actually didn’t have any official forecasts in this regard. In general, I would say that participation was higher than expected. I was surprised by the participation and enthusiasm shown in the face-to-face activities, such as the meetings, working groups and panel discussions. In contrast, online participation, in things like discussion forums or commenting on documents, fell short of what I expected. That’s something we still have to address: above and beyond the Strategic Plan, we have to better use online platforms to foster more intense and varied internal discussions.

— Did the initial diagnosis detect areas of improvement?

— The Strategic Plan seeks to provide solutions for the issues detected in the initial diagnosis, not so much to change things that were working, but rather to fix things that were not working well enough or were considered problematic. In addition to the teaching, research and internationalization aspects we’ve already mentioned, amongst other things that were pointed out, attention should be drawn to the need to streamline the university’s internal organization, strengthen the role of alumni, further embrace transparency and accountability, increase interdisciplinarity, take advantage of and learn about the different experiences carried out, and generate more collective learning.

— Do we have the necessary resources to meet all these objectives?

— What UPF does with its €133 million (2016) is not all that different from what universities with four or more times our budget (and a similarly larger number of students) do, and that can be seen in the rankings, when we appear in similar positions. This desire to fight and compete at this level, despite our limited funding, makes everything very difficult. Really, Catalan universities, and perhaps UPF in particular, due to our strong desire to be a global university known for its research, are competing on unequal footing.

— How can the funding be improved?

— The Strategic Plan recognizes this problem and proposes certain means of improvement: first, we need to call for more and better public funding, because we are carrying out a very important mission of public interest, that is, of interest to the country as a whole. Second, we also need private funding: to attract more sponsors and patrons; to collaborate more with companies involved in research and customized training; to engage in more applied research or in activities related to the sale of educational services and training programmes able to draw students from outside Europe, for example. If we can figure out how to combine and organize the private and public formulas well enough, we can substantially increase certain levels of funding in coming years. 

He likes: walking

A musician: Leonard Cohen

A book: La tortuga ecuestre by César Moro

A value: accountability