UPF rector, Oriol Amat, has argued that the future of the university must inevitably involve cooperation between international universities, to face global challenges and to “guarantee the success of the mission entrusted to the universities, which can be summarized as teaching, scientific research and the transfer of knowledge to society”. In this line, the rector explained that international cooperation “is a very powerful aid to better meet the needs of all the actors involved, starting with the students, and not lag behind in an increasingly competitive scenario”.

The rector made these reflections in New York as part of the World Academic Summit organized by Times Higher Education (THE) in collaboration with New York University (NYU). In this edition, which took place between 10 and 12 October, the title of the summit was “Trajectories in higher education: Meeting rising expectations”. Amat was one of the speakers in the roundtable entitled “Shaping the trajectory of consumer demand for institutions”, along with the rector of the University of Tokyo, Teruo Fujii, and the founder and CEO of the Center for Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions, Narimane Hadj-Hamou.

Oriol Amat: "The international cooperation is a very powerful aid to better meet the needs of all the actors involved, starting with the students, and not lag behind in an increasingly competitive scenario”.

Amat provided several examples relating to international collaboration projects in which UPF participates, including the Eutopia Alliance of European Universities, of which Pompeu Fabra is the founder. The rector highlighted this initiative of the European Union that aims for universities “to undertake the challenge of cooperating to innovate both in terms of teaching and research”. Amat explained to those present at the session that Eutopia “is setting in motion learning communities with students and professors from ten universities, joint degrees, joint supervision of doctoral theses, joint research projects and mobility stays by teaching staff, students and administrative staff”.

In addition to international cooperation, the rector also stressed collaboration with civil society and, in this regard, highlighted the success of the Chair of Futures in Communication, developed by UPF in collaboration with fourteen leading organizations in this field. The aim of this initiative is to generate knowledge about trends in communication and its production processes.

Finally, Amat also underscored cooperation between states, institutions, universities and research centres in order to tackle the global challenge of climate change. In this regard, he stressed that this transversal cooperation is already being carried out in Catalonia, and offered as an example the planetary wellbeing project promoted by UPF.