The two celebrations of this year's Faculty of Sciences

1998/09/01 Kortabarria Olabarria, Beñardo - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Unibertsitateak
• Giza zientziak

This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the departure of the first promotion of the Faculty of Sciences. I am a student of the tenth promotion, so I have only known the second part of the history of our Faculty, have realized the previous years my teachers and colleagues. With my promotion and my descendants came the massification to the University and, of course, we have had to do with it, both as students and later as professors. But at that time other things also came. For example, the Basque Government began to subsidize the realization of doctoral theses.

Thanks to the program established for this, many of us were able to carry out the thesis. Certainly more than the promotions of previous years. On the other hand, since that time, research grants have grown dramatically and the Spanish Government, the Basque Government and the UPV/EHU themselves have placed resources of great importance in our hands. The influence of these efforts is evident. The scientific level of the faculty is high, as demonstrated by the most used sciences. Funding sources have multiplied, work published in high-level international journals is increasing and relations with research groups from other countries have intensified and diversified significantly.

All this leads us to conclude that things go perfectly. And the truth is that my view is quite optimistic, but not for that. For those of us who have known the Faculty that existed fifteen years ago, if what happened in these years has been to encourage and be happy, the present has its few advantages. In my opinion, despite the efforts made to boost the level of research and science, little has been done to achieve a comparable evolution in the quality of teaching. It is true that the increase in the level of research has been accompanied by an increase in teaching; in short, one of the main characteristics of the university professor is the close relationship between research and teaching activities. But in this field more can be done.

The institutions and the University have not made any real commitment to date to improve the quality of teaching, and most of what has been done has been dependent on the desire and will of each professor. And we must not forget what the main objective of the University is. Our main task is to train highly qualified personnel for society. That is what society asks of us and everything else, should be at the service of it. As in most areas, the use of adequate resources is essential, and although these resources must be multiple, economic resources are necessary.

I therefore believe that this is one of the main tasks for the future, with some complementary differences between them. This requires sustainable teacher recycling programmes. It would be very useful, on the other hand, to establish more effective mentoring systems and to properly assess and reward the tutorial work. Specific sources of funding for teacher infrastructure should be established. As technology advances, the resources and infrastructure that will be in the world of work are constantly renewed. Teaching infrastructures should therefore be similarly renewed. Surely more could be done in this field, like the ones I mentioned.

On the other hand, and closely related to the above, one of the main tasks for the immediate future is the implementation of new degrees. The teaching offer cannot be frozen over the years; if the needs of society are new and pathways have been opened for new scientific fields at the University, our responsibility is to respond to these new needs. The UPV Board of Government approved last spring the new Title Map. In it, the University has developed a proposal detailing the new degrees it can offer in the near future. Some of the qualifications included in this map may be offered at the Faculty of Sciences. Given this we have a great responsibility and will depend on the quality of the teaching offer we make, both of our future and of many young people who come to the University.

These are our future challenges. Although research activities are solid and stable, it is expected that they will improve. Based on this, we must aspire to a higher quality of teaching. As I said, it is up to the Institutions to offer the necessary resources for this, but each of us also has its role. Keep it in mind.

If you have asked me for these lines, because I am a member of the Faculty of Sciences and also, I think you have been Vice-Rector of Euskera. Therefore, I would like to mention here the evolution of teaching in Basque at the Faculty and the shows that can be performed in this regard for the future. The Faculty of Sciences pioneered this field. There they began to teach the first classes in Basque at the University in the eighties.

This was, in principle, the result of the work and will of a few teachers. Subsequently, the offer in Basque has been expanded and expanded. In some studies more than in others, but almost every year we have been able to add this offer. We have not yet reached where we have to go, but the road we have to travel is shorter than the route. For example, this year the first promotion that has been able to carry out the studies of Biology entirely in Basque. We have also celebrated that and I think it has been much more significant and important than the other celebration.

First of all, in the scientific field, higher studies have been conducted in Basque. In the coming years the rest of the studies of the Faculty can be carried out entirely in Basque, some previously. Therefore, we will continue along the same path and with the aim of improving what has been done so far, we will make every effort to have adequate resources for university education. As I said before, responsibility cannot be just institutional. It is up to each one of us and in this area, that of the normalization of Basque in the scientific field, much remains to be done. This is the second challenge for the coming years.