Outreach and reputation
«A university that produces well-educated graduates who are both good professionals and socially engaged citizens.»
The university has a strong image and has built a remarkably good international reputation. Proof of this can be seen in the high demand for admission to its undergraduate programmes, its positioning in international rankings, the degree of internationalization of the faculty, and the large presence of students from all over the world in the master’s degree and doctoral programmes. However, the good image and prestige that UPF has accrued would not be complete without a strong openness to society, as part of its social responsibility as a public institution. To produce not just good professionals but also engaged citizens is a goal we cannot renounce.
UPF thus has to work to become a hub for the generation and transmission of values that provide added value to its alumni, at both the social and personal levels. In this regard, UPF must strive for excellence not only in the academic sphere, but also in the human one, especially with regard to culture. Additionally, it must strengthen the singularity of its own story, underscoring what sets it apart, so that it can carve out a firm position for itself in the higher education landscape, taking into account the emergence of new technologies.
The university must better convey everything that it does and can do for society.
The people-oriented focus intrinsic to all fields of knowledge covered at UPF affords many possibilities for intensifying the interaction between the university and the city. This is a very powerful asset that works in our favour in terms of recruiting students and faculty and that, together with our idiosyncrasies – UPF is a relatively small university, with well-regarded, high-quality disciplinary profiles –, makes us quite attractive. We thus have the ideal characteristics and potential to become one of the main drivers of change in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres of our local community, and we need to actively engage with it, placing special value on this tie with the city of Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia.
«An urban university, linked to the city of Barcelona, with a strong international reputation.»
Outreach and reputation strategies
To impact the local community through outreach:
Carrying out actions and implementing promotion policies that allow UPF to become an agent of economic, political and social change. In order to situate the university in a leading position in the cultural sphere, it is necessary to promote the transfer and dissemination of knowledge to society, strengthen strategic ties with important cultural institutions, and encourage cultural creation.
Strengthening the university’s entrepreneurship and promoting networking and outreach to economic sectors that might result in mutual benefits, such as employment opportunities, knowledge transfer, or possibilities for sponsorship.
Promoting the university community’s social commitment, to transmit and promote, from the start, a series of values that will stay with all members of the university community throughout their careers, will enrich life for society at large, and will contribute to sustainable development.
Implementing an open-door policy at the university that allows experts, interest groups and private citizens to approach UPF and allows the university to absorb and learn from their activities, experiences and knowledge, in a two-way exchange that moreover transmits what the university does for society in the clearest possible way.
Strengthening relations with the spheres of culture, athletics and art, through the articulation of social networks, both formal and informal, that facilitate contact between members of the university community and society at large, whilst at the same time allowing UPF to become an organization that learns from others and shares the knowledge of others.
To position UPF as an attractive reference point for its environment:
Strengthening the ties with the powerful magnet that is Barcelona, as a decisive factor for attracting students and faculty from around the world, and adapting the university’s public profile taking into account the major changes occurring in the city and the multiple dimensions of the urban phenomenon.
Reaching out to our local urban community. The neighbourhoods hosting UPF facilities must be priorities in its relations with society; it is thus necessary to open the campus up for social use and the activities of local residents. It is moreover necessary to conceive of the city and the local community as an open classroom in which to engage in learning activities.
Strengthening knowledge-based partnerships that take advantage of the extensive opportunities for technological, social and human cooperation offered by the city of Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole.
Forging international partnerships with top-tier universities to promote innovative interuniversity collaboration initiatives in the sphere of teaching, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and in other areas.
Implementing policies to recruit excellent students, both Catalan and international, who will help to increase the recognition of the training offered at UPF, making it a more attractive choice, whether for undergraduate, master’s degree or doctoral programmes.
Some measures of success
- To significantly improve the graduate employment rate as compared to the average for the Catalan university system by 2020 (in 2014, UPF was close to the Catalan university system’s average).
- To increase, by 2020, the percentage of undergraduate and postgraduate students whose parents do not have a university education.
- To promote environmental sustainability by reducing CO2 emission levels by up to 25% by 2025 through energy-saving measures and the use of clean energy sources.
- To increase the number of contributions to the public sphere by 50% by 2025, through publications in the press, posts to social networks, audiovisual media, etc., by members of the UPF community.
- To increase, by 2025, the number of external activities, both public and private, carried out in UPF spaces and buildings.