We are talking to Rita Wing, who has made a donation of 4,000 euros to the University to fund the full registration of a student on the university master’s degree in International Studies on Media, Power and Difference, which will be given from September 2016 by the  Department of Communication at UPF.

The aim of the Rita Wing scholarship, as it has been dubbed, is for the student awarded it to do their master’s degree final project on a topic related with the confluence of gender, poverty and critical studies on animals and the communications media. 

- What led you to make a donation to the UPF, and specifically to cover the registration fees for a master’s degree?

The media play a very important role in the appreciation that each person has of today. The current power imbalances between groups in the world, both between different groups of humans and between groups of humans and other species, require having tools to deconstruct the information we receive on a daily basis in order to act more ethically and more efficiently. For this reason, covering tuition fees for the university master’s degree in International Studies on Media, Power and Difference seems to me to be a good opportunity to make progress along these lines.

The current power imbalances require having tools to deconstruct the information we receive to act more ethically and more efficiently.

- What results are you expecting from your donation?

I hope that a student, who might otherwise not have the opportunity to access the programme due to economic issues, can take advantage of the course and thus contribute to the development of this field of study. 

- What relationship do you have with the world of the university?

Though my working life has been closely linked with music, I have never stopped studying. I have completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the universities of Oxford, London and Barcelona, and also with the Open University of the United Kingdom. I think that universities have a very important role in the life of a country and that everyone should have access to studies.

I think that universities have a very important role in the life of a country and that everyone should have access to studies.

- Is there any specific area of knowledge that you would like to promote?

Currently, there is a tendency to give less importance to the field of the humanities. I think that to build a free and ethical society we need to foster these disciplines more than ever. 

- Do you think patronage needs encouraging in our country? In what way?

The truth is that patronage is a new field for me, and I think that, like me, there are many people who would like to contribute to boosting and encouraging university studies. Despite the fact that access to university, in my opinion, should mainly be funded by the State and should be open to everyone.

- How could the public universities promote this kind of initiative? Do you think that the creation of the UPFund programme is a good starting point?

UPFund seems to me a very good initiative. It would be interesting and desirable to promote the scheme more to inform more people that patronage can be done at different scales. Many people probably think that patronage is an issue only for big companies, or people like Bill Gates...

- Do you collaborate with any other project or institution?

Yes, I collaborate with several NGOs, both helping humans and non-humans.