May 2012 - Alliance4universities

Observatory for monitoring R+D+i at Spanish universities is launched

18 May, 2012/in News/by Laura

The Observatory of Spanish University Research (Observatorio de la Actividad Investigadora de la Universidad Española – IUNE) has been launched. This Observatory is a database, whcih allows the R+D+i activities at public and private Spanish universities to be seen and analysed using 6 categories of data and 42 indicators. This initiative, coordinated by the Laboratory for Metric Information Studies (Laboratorio de Estudios Métricos de la Información – LEMI) at Carlos III University of Madrid, has been developed as part of Alianza 4 Universidades (A-4U), which also includes Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

iUNE Observatory is the most complete platform for evaluating scientific activity and knowledge transfer that currently exists within the Spanish university system, since – according to its creators, a team of more than twenty researchers from A-4U – it includes dimensions that are not dealt with in other national or international rankings. Having initially been financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, it currently receives support from the Ministry of Education, which considers this laboratory the official source for indicators of research undertaken in Spanish university system.

With this tool, the most significant results of scientific and innovation activities taking place at 73 Spanish universities (48 public and 25 private) can be seen. The dynamic open web platform that has been created (www.iune.es) allows the user to visualize data from a set period and obtain graphics automatically. To do this, the platform is based on a range of 42 clear, simple, and comparable indicators of university activity, grouped into 6 categories, such as the number of professors, the recognition that they obtained, the characteristics of their scientific activities (production, productivity, collaboration, impact, visibility, etc.), their competitiveness in obtaining projects, innovation (patents, licenses, spin-offs, etc.), and the education capacity of the institutions they do research for (scholarships, aid, contracts, thesis, etc.)

Information provided in these six categories dates back to 2001 and is updated annually on all of the indicators obtained, thanks to the data that is gathered from contrasted and accessible information sources, such as the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (Centro para el Desarrollo Técnico Industrial – CDTI), National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (Comisión Nacional Evaluadora de la Actividad Investigadora – CNEAI), Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología – FECYT), National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística – INE), Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas – OEPM), Office for the Transfer of Research Results Network (Red OTRI), and Web for Science platform, among others.

Increasing productivity in Spanish universities

This set of variables enables the measurement of different aspects of research activity. “By using these indicators, each university can determine the characteristics of its activity and examine its position within the Spanish university system, based on its scientific activity or the subject areas it wishes to analyse”, explains Professor Elias Sanz, coordinator of iUNE Observatory and head of UC3M Laboratory for Metric Information Studies (LEMI). “With the creation of the Observatory – he adds – an attempt is being made to overcome the complete and systematic lack of information that exists with regard to the scientific activity being carried out at Spanish universities”.

The results obtained show, for example, an overall annual increase in productivity at all universities. At the end of the analysed period, this increase reaches 95.31% since year 2002. “It is interesting to see that 5 of the 10 most productive universities are small, which shows that it is useful to weigh the absolute values of publications by the number of professors”, comments Professor Elias Sanz.

In order to develop iUNE, to which various research groups from the universities involved have dedicated over three years of work, guidelines have been adopted, which must follow the classification of universities, both in the international context and within Spain. In addition, it has been decided that the Berlin principles will continue to be followed in the creation of rankings of this type, which have become a useful tool for evaluating activities in higher education institutions.

More information can be found on iUNE website.

“Sui Iuris”, an Ibero-American Association of School and Faculties of Law, is established

17 May, 2012/in News/by Laura

From 12 to 14 of April, a meeting of 25 Deans and representatives of Law Faculties from 20 Spanish and Latin American leading universities took place in Mexico City and in Guadalajara. The event was attended by four universities from Spain (A-4U: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona), four universities from Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad de Guadalajara, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey), three universities from Argentina (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad de San Andrés, and Universidad Torcuato di Tella de Buenos Aires), three universities from Chile (Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad de Valparaíso, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso), two universities from Brasil (Fundaçao Getulio Vargas de Sao Paolo, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), two universities from Peru (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad del Pacífico de Lima), one from Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and one university from Venezuela (Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas).

This is the third meeting in the series that promotes international cooperation between the network members, with the first two meetings held in Barcelona in 2010 and in Santiago de Chile in 2011. In this meeting, hosted by UNAM and Universidad de Guadalajara, the participating universities agreed to establish “Sui Iuris”, an Ibero-American Association of Schools and Faculties of Law.

The aim of “Sui Iuris” association is to provide space for an open and independent dialogue on questions related to the teaching of Law and legal practice, to encourage continuous improvement of Law Faculties and Scholls in the Ibero-American space, and to stimulate staff and student exchange between participating universities. At the meeting proposals were were made to establish a future accreditation system of Law Faculties and Schools, and to formulate syllabus recommendations for undergraduate programmes in Law and teaching methodology. To achieve this, two working groups have been set up to prepare proposals that will be discussed at the next meeting of the association. Also, a session dedicated to staff and student mobility was held, where potential was identified for signing an exchange agreement involving all participating universities.

For the next two years, the association will be presided by José Joan Moreso, rector of Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. The Executive Committee will be formed by the Law Faculty of Pontifícia Universidad Católica do Rio de Janeiro (taking on the Vice-President role), Universidad Diego Portales de Chile, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Pontificia Católica de Perú and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. In the future, the association might include other universities of recognised excellence from Latin American countries and Portugal.

A-4U expands to include collaborations with South Africa

4 May, 2012/in News/by Laura

From 23 to 26 of April, A-4U delegation travelled to South Africa on an institutional visit to a number of leading universities in the country and governmental bodies concerned with higher education.

The aim of the visit was to identify common areas of interest and to discuss specific initiatives such as staff and student exchange programmes, joint seminars, and participation in the European Framework Programme projects. The following institutions were visited:

University of Pretoria

University of Witwatersrand

University of Stellenbosch

University of Cape Town

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Ministry of Higher Education and Training

national Research Foundation (part of the Ministry of Science and Technology)

Higher Education South Africa (an association of all South African public universities)

Spanish Embassy in South Africa

As a result of the visit, A-4U started the process of signing general agreements with the above universities, which will open the way to setting up student and staff exchange programmes as well as research collaborations.

Internationalisation is one of the main objectives for creating the Alliance. The four universities have developed a joint strategy of internationalisation with priority in BRIC countries: India, Brazil, Russia, and China. Recently, the BRIC group has expanded to include South Africa, an emerging economy that is currently leading on the African continent. The visit to South Africa was co-funded by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), which supports A-4U international activities.

Archive for month: May, 2012