The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, chaired the event for acknowledging the city's universities receiving a distinction as a Campus of International Excellence awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education.

The event, held in the Saló de Cent hall, was attended by the secretary general for universities of the Ministry of Education, Màrius Rubiralta; the rector of Pompeu Fabra University, Josep Joan Moreso; the rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Ana Ripoll; the rector of the Technical University of Catalonia, Antoni Giró; and the acting rector of the University of Barcelona, Carles Carreras. Several representatives from the universities, companies and other institutions of the city were also in attendance.

In the 2010 call, the Ministry of Education acknowledged the "UPF Icària International Campus" project, the "ENERGY-UPC Campus" project and the "Health University of Barcelona Campus" project as constituting campuses of excellence. These acknowledgements add to the "Barcelona Knowledge Campus", jointly promoted by UB and UPC, and to the "CEI Commitment to Knowledge and Innovation" from the UAB, all award-winning projects in 2009 which have once again received financial backing from the Ministry of Education.

New higher education cluster in 2011

During the event, the mayor of Barcelona announced that Barcelona City Council, through its Economic Promotion Area, has for over a year been working on the establishment of a higher education cluster, an initiative that may see the light of day in 2011. The cluster will comprise public and private universities, university foundations, business schools, specialist interuniversity platforms and specialised centres.

The higher education cluster of Barcelona is one of the proposals set out in the Strategic 2020 Barcelona Metropolitan Plan. It aims to become a worldwide benchmark in the field of postgraduate higher education, thereby helping to lend Barcelona greater international renown, contributing to the city's capacities and helping to attract talent, whilst also strengthening higher education as a strategic economic area for the city and its metropolitan area. Barcelona is home to in excess of 25,000 foreign university students studying at State and private universities and business schools in the city. 10,000 of these students are master's degree or postgraduate students.

The higher education cluster will be structured in 2011 and specific proposals will be put forward to promote it. Thus, priority will be given to China as the main focus of promotion initiatives owing to the significance of its market and the potential for cooperation and exchange it affords.

The goal of the cluster will be to foster existing programmes and to commit to the generation of knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship as a springboard for its future development and as an increasingly important economic area in the city, to serve as an example that, even over the past two years, sectors relating to knowledge, R&D and technology have continued to generate net employment.