As rector of Pompeu Fabra University, I would like to offer you a very warm welcome to our university community.

Young, modern and unequivocally public, our university was founded in 1990 to offer training of the very highest quality in specific academic and professional areas. That new, different institution has seen its research activity increase substantially since then, an aspect we must reinforce and consolidate.

The result today is a specialized university that has interconnected a unique approach to teaching with cutting-edge research, revolving around three closely linked spheres of knowledge, namely social and human sciences (at the Ciutadella campus), information and communication sciences and technologies (at the Poblenou campus) and health and life sciences (at the Mar campus).

We must now once again look beyond our present situation and establish new goals to ensure that UPF becomes one of Europe’s fi nest universities. I envisage a university that is even more cohesive, boasts greater organizational fl exibility, and builds on its original nature and its size to develop a project in which we are all participants. The pride that each of us takes in doing our work well is a cast-iron guarantee for the future. Simply making the effort, at the same time, to refl ect upon whether that work is heading in the right direction and is an integral part of a collective idea guarantees a brighter future and a service moulded to the expectations arising from our environment.

I hope the stage of your career on which you are now embarking proves thoroughly satisfactory and successful, and remain at your disposal henceforth.

Laia de Nadal
Rector