The Temple of the Monastery of Los Jerónimos was fully adorned to celebrate

the Official Opening Ceremony of the Academic Year 2022-23 of the

Universidad Católica de Murcia this morning. This time, it did so in a very

special way, recalling that it was 25 years ago that the walls of the Los

Jerónimos Monastery hosted the start of the school year for the first time,

when its corridors welcomed the 650 students who began their classes with

great enthusiasm. Since then, more than 100,000 students have been

educated at UCAM, which maintains the mission with which it was born

intact: to provide top-quality teaching in small groups, with a teaching staff

that remains in contact with their professions, with tutorial support, committed

to research, offering training in values in the light of Christian humanism,

with curricula adapted to the demands of the sector, supporting sports from

the grassroots and committed to evangelisation.

The ceremony was presided over by José Luis Mendoza, UCAM President,

accompanied by Josefina García Lozano, Rector of the

institution; Fernando López Miras, President of the Autonomous

Community of the Region of Murcia; Valle Miguélez, Regional Minister for

Enterprises, Employment, Universities and Spokesperson; Alberto Castillo,

President of the Regional Assembly of Murcia; Antonio Montoro, Honorary

Rector, and José Manuel Lorca Planes, Bishop of the Diocese of Cartagena,

who presided over the Eucharist which marked the start of the day. The

Murcian José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno Rodríguez, Emeritus Professor of

Animal Health at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, gave the inaugural

lecture.

José Luis Mendoza, UCAM President , recalled the principles of the

institution he represents, ‘25 years of academic activity and a history of

Love for God. A Catholic and evangelising university, profoundly existential,

driven by the power of God's Love manifested in Jesus Christ; with a spirit of

dedication and service, and with the capacity to love and forgive. We train

great professionals, but we also care about their moral side’. He also recalled

his recent meeting with Pope Francis, in which the Holy Father showed his

support for the University Apostolate Decree.

Regarding the University's current academic situation, the president

emphasised the educational model, whose quality has led it to be

recognised, consolidating its position in the rankings of the best

universities in the world, such as The Times Higher Education, and on its

commitment to internationalisation, with more than 7500 foreign students

from 105 countries. In the field of research, José Luis Mendoza reminded the

audience that UCAM is the only university in Spain to carry out research

with the US biotech company Altos Labs, and he talked about

the incorporation to UCAM HiTech of the world's top researchers in

sensor chemistry, María Cuartero and Gastón Crespo, who will lead

UCAM-SENS, the first sensor chemistry centre in Europe.

The UCAM rector also recalled the progress made by the institution over the

last 25 years, with more than 23,000 students this year, and had words of

thanks for José Luis Mendoza: ‘This work will stand the test of time, always

true to its principles. Being free and coherent as you are, José Luis, means

putting up with injustice. This is your great legacy.’

‘This marks 25 years of constant work by Universidad Católica de San

Antonio, for and with the Region of Murcia, in which it has trained men and

women who have been able to make it a better place’. With these words,

Fernando López Miras, President of the Region of Murcia, has valued the

work of the Universidad Católica de Murcia during this quarter of a century.

He also stressed that UCAM ‘is a benchmark in public-private

collaboration, in which the university-business binomial is so important’,

and concluded by affirming that the Universidad Católica ‘has always been

there whenever it has been needed’ in the Region's major projects.

José Manuel Lorca Planes, Bishop of the Diocese of Cartagena, encouraged

the institution to achieve the challenges UCAM faces this new year, ‘a

University that walks together in the same direction to put its talents at the

service of society.’

Green, the colour of the Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Science, takes

centre stage

UCAM celebrates its 25th anniversary by facing a year of hope ‘in which the

colour green takes centre stage,’ said Josefina García Lozano, UCAM’s

Rector, in reference to the Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Science, on

which the institution has been working for two years, especially in the last five

months, and which has already obtained the necessary authorisation from the

Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation

(ANECA in Spanish) and the General Conference on University Policy, as

well as the positive verification report from the Council of Universities. For

this reason, she expressed her surprise at the ‘great injustice we are suffering

with this degree’ for which the institution has already prepared professors,

researchers, facilities -with a positive report too- and interested students,

awaiting the approval of the Inter-University Council, asking ‘that they let us

be a university’ because ‘well-understood competition makes us all better.’

In this respect, the president of the Autonomous Community has stated that

UCAM will continue to grow with new degrees. ‘You meet all the objective

requirements to implement the Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Science

according to ANECA, the University Council and the University Policy

Council,’ adding that once the regional administrative procedures have been

completed ‘which will be rather sooner than later, guided by the principles of

freedom, plurality and free competition, with the sole vocation that all our

young people have more opportunities to study and train in what they want in

the Region of Murcia, the Governing Council will give the go-ahead to this

Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Science at Universidad Católica San Antonio

de Murcia.’

Can we prevent pandemics?

‘My heartfelt gratitude for the work you have done in this Region to

contribute to its development in training and research, exactly what is most

needed in this world.’ This is how the Murcian José Manuel Sánchez-

Vizcaíno Rodríguez, Emeritus Professor of Animal Health at the Universidad

Complutense de Madrid, referred to the UCAM president, at the beginning of

his inaugural lecture, in which he spoke about how pandemics arise and

whether we can prevent them. In the course of said lecture, he recalled that

Murcia has a Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Science, which he hopes will

soon be joined by that of Universidad Católica de Murcia.

The researcher pointed out that humanity will continue to face pandemics

‘because it's not that they appear, it's that we open the door to them,’ referring,

among other things, to the fact that these viruses appear when people occupy

unspoilt or remote areas or due to climatic changes which cause vectors to

rise. With regard to the possibility of preventing them, the professor indicated

that ‘we can detect the situation before it reaches humans’ and to this end

he called for a greater connection between human health, animal health

and the environment: ‘We must all work towards the same health.’

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------

25 years at the service of society

 To refurbish the Los Jerónimos Monastery, the San Antonio

University Foundation invested more than 17 million euros, turning it

into one of the most beautiful campuses in the world, as catalogued by

international publications such as Education and Career and the agency

'Study. UA'.

 In November 1997, the first 650 students, who enrolled in 10 degree

programmes, set foot on the Los Jerónimos Campus for the first time.

This year we will have more than 30 degrees and we have

surpassed 100,000 graduates.

 The number of international students studying at UCAM this year

exceeds 7500, making it the Spanish university with the highest number

of degrees taught entirely in English.

 Since its beginnings, UCAM has allocated more than 200 million

euros to applied research, that is, to the development of research

projects that have a direct impact on the improvement of society.

Exactly one year ago, the institution launched its high-tech incubator in

health, sport and nutrition, UCAM HiTech, which has recently

incorporated two of the world's best researchers in sensor chemistry to

lead UCAM-SENS, Europe's first sensor chemistry centre.

 UCAM is known throughout Europe as The University of Sports, with

more than 6,000 athletes, from the grassroots of the clubs and federated

university athletes to great Olympic champions. Since 2012, when the

UCAM, hand in hand with the COE, gave a great boost to this project,

UCAM athletes have won numerous Olympic and Paralympic medals,

and at the same time, have had numerous academic successes,

graduating with degrees, postgraduates and doctorates.

 UCAM supports more than 130 social, charitable and cooperation

organisations (from local to international) in the poorest areas of the

world. In addition to the voluntary work carried out by the institution

throughout the year, it also cooperates in special circumstances, such as

the aid to the victims of the storm that recently affected the towns of

Javalí Viejo and La Ñora, the health care it offers in Uganda – which

enabled the equipping of a clinic and an ambulance, free health care

and training for local staff –, the creation of the UCAM for Peace

platform on the occasion of the war in Ukraine, etc. The institution also

organises the International Volunteering Exhibition in Murcia and

Cartagena every year, in which around one hundred social entities

participate.

 Since its founding, UCAM has contributed to the development and

generation of wealth in the Region of Murcia, as proven by the fact that

it has more than 4,000 employees.