Speech by President of the Government at meeting of Inter-institutional Committee for Commemoration of 8th Centenary of University of Salamanca

Salamanca

Mr President of the Regional Government, Madam Vice-President of the Government, Mr Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, Mr Rector of the University of Salamanca, Mr Mayor, public officials, members of the Plenary Session of the Inter-Institutional Committee.

It is very satisfying to be here with you in the Salinas Room of the Higher Faculty Building of the University of Salamanca to hold another meeting of the Plenary Session of this Inter-Institutional Committee

In 2018, as you know, we will commemorate, under the Honorary Presidency of Their Majesties the King and Queen, the 8th centenary of the founding of the University of Salamanca, the world's first Spanish-speaking university and only the fourth in Europe, after Bologna, Oxford and Paris.

Since the 13th Century, the University of Salamanca has been a source of knowledge and has borne witness to the key events that have taken place in Spain's history and culture, and its classrooms have enjoyed the presence, either as professors or as students, of the likes of Francisco de Vitoria, Fray Luis de León, Hernán Cortés, Luis de Góngora and Pedro Calderón de la Barca; and also Miguel de Unamuno, Severo Ochoa, Lázaro Carreter, Adolfo Suárez, Beatriz Galindo and Lucía Medrano.

Since the first few years of that now-distant 13th Century until today, over the course of almost eight centuries of academic, political and institutional work, this university has been making history and creating a future for us.

As with other universities of its time, the University of Salamanca was born out of a vocation to cover the whole spectrum of knowledge that existed at that time and, bearing in mind the times and distances, with a vocation for international projection focused on the exchange of knowledge that we can claim has endured until modern times.

It has been a pioneering university in many fields, from the Sciences and the Arts to academic functioning, and its merits include knowing how to attract students and professors from all corners of the world, who continue to write its history as if this were a shared success. This was the first university to have a Chair in Economics and the first to organise Spanish courses for foreigners, but it was also the first university in Europe to boast a library and the first in the world to have a female university professor.

In the wake of this, Salamanca today stands as a benchmark in teaching, research and the transfer of knowledge; a driver of innovation, talent and entrepreneurship; a reference in promoting scientific, cultural and educational cooperation and equal opportunities.

Considered the alma mater of many of the American universities founded in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries, the University of Salamanca, together with the University of Coimbra received the Prince of Asturias Prize for International Cooperation in 1986 for the extraordinary contribution by both universities to fostering the spirit of all those countries that make up the Ibero-American Community and to its traditional dialogue with American universities that made the Atlantic into the "Mare Nostrum" of universal culture.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The proximity of the 8th centenary of the University of Salamanca, birthplace of the law of nations and of the emergence of higher education in Spain, is a perfect time for presenting transforming initiatives in very diverse areas: in terms of the university itself, its international dimension and its campus, together with improvements in the national university system as a whole, as the Rector mentioned in his speech, and in its relations with systems in other countries and regions, particularly Europe and Ibero-America.

This is an ambitious project, geared towards consolidating the strengths of the Spanish university system, which originated in Salamanca, a project whose priority lines of action include attracting and incorporating talent, internationalisation, its inter-disciplinary nature and innovation, all applied to developing and improving teaching, research and management.

The initiatives being tackled, and which will be tackled within the framework of this commemoration, will help boost the urban and productive fabric of the city and of the region, and will lead to an international pole for teaching, research and the transfer of knowledge to be created, which will give a major boost to the incorporation of our country in the knowledge society.

Hence, the celebration of the 8th centenary of the University of Salamanca transcends its university walls and will help project the Spanish university system as a whole and Spain itself.

In this regard, I would like to highlight the government's commitment to this event, classified as of exceptional public interest, and hence enjoying the maximum fiscal advantages granted by the law, for the maximum period of time, that is, from 1 November 2015 to 31 October 2018, thus also coinciding with the start of the academic year and covering up to four budgetary years.

And this is just one of the efforts being made by the government for this commemoration. Among others is the loan of the Bank of Spain building, just a short distance from where we are now, which will become, after it is re-modelled, one of the benchmark centres of Spanish-language teaching.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The commemoration of the 8th centenary of the University of Salamanca, and thus, of the Spanish university system, is, due to the material importance and the magnitude of the event, a State objective that must be understood and at the same time to be a tribute to all Spanish, European and Ibero-American universities, as well as to our culture and our language.

During this plenary session, we are going to proceed, among other issues, to the approval of the programme of activities to turn the challenges we seek to tackle into a reality. This centenary has five main programmes that form the general lines of the activities of this commemoration, each one of them with its own undoubted specific importance due to its lines of action and potential results, and which I will now list for you: 1) The University of Spanish; 2) International Leadership in Higher Education; 3) Excellence at University; 4) Heritage and Infrastructures; 5) National and International Promotion.

These activities should help us create a space for reflection in order to move towards a university system involved in society, so that our universities can contribute more and better towards the progress of our country in a global world, providing a response to the needs and concerns of our citizens.

Dear friends,

I want to conclude these brief words by pointing to the importance of us all working together towards our main national goals, of which higher education plays a key role, a primordial role because, thanks to higher education, opportunities for personal development and social and labour promotion in terms of equality are multiplied; research moves forward and knowledge is spread; and this determines, to a great extent, the competitiveness and talent to drive innovation, and the preparation of society is consolidated and consequently, its liberty, its cohesion and its progress.

The University of Salamanca has heeded the advice of one of its most illustrious students, Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, for whom "to yield to adversity is, as it were, to side with it". And thus, for eight centuries it has stood as a constant example of excellence.

From the government that I head up, I would urge the Academic Year 2017-2018 to be officially opened at the University of Salamanca and thus highlight to the whole country the importance of celebrating this 8th centenary.

Finally, I encourage you to continue with this task of educating free and equal citizens, who can decide, through their knowledge, on the destiny of their lives, which, as a whole, means the destiny of the Spanish nation.

Thank you very much.