The President of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, is part of the International Committee of the 5th Universia International Rectors' Summit, which brings together 700 rectors from 14 countries in Valencia, representing 14 million students from all over the world.
Under the motto "University and Society", the meeting, which took place from May 8 to 10, focused on the role of the University as a driving force for a more sustainable socio-economic development and included the participation of internationally renowned speakers.
Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government of Spain, and Ana Botín, president of the Santander Bank and Universia, inaugurated the meeting, organized around three major ideas: Lifelong or continuous learning; promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation and, finally, networking and interconnection between universities.
About the meeting, Isabel Capeloa Gil says that "thinking about the University as a protagonist of the future means claiming the right to do things differently. An autonomy without constraints, which means finding a proposal of value, that does not come from a reaction to short-term trends or needs, but rather that anticipates transformation, that takes risks and also knows how to fail, redo and start again."
Scientist Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, US President Bill Clinton's former Treasury Secretary and World Bank Chief Economist Larry Summers, the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific Research 2006, Ignacio Cirac, and the head of Artificial Intelligence research strategy at Google, Pilar Manchón, were among the guest speakers.
The 5th Universia International Rectors' Summit follows on from previous meetings in Salamanca (Spain) in 2018, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2014, Guadalajara (Mexico) in 2010 and Seville (Spain) in 2005, and is organized by Banco Santander.
The conclusions of the International Rectors' Summit will be reflected in the 'Valencia Declaration', which will bring together the commitment of the rectors so that the University continues to advance, from various lines of action, in its purpose of continuing to contribute to the development of society.
