Today, the Temple of the Los Jerónimos Monastery hosted the  Official 2020-2021 Academic Year Opening Ceremony that, due to the current pandemic, was carried out with limited seating and in accordance with all safety measures.

The ceremony begun with the celebration of the Eucharist, presided over by Monsignor José Manuel Lorca Planes, and it ended with a speech by José Luis Mendoza, president of UCAM. Josefina García Lozano, chancellor of the institution, Miguel Motas, member of the Regional Ministry of Employment, Josefina García, director-general for Universities, and María Isabel Fortea, director-general for Research participated in the event.

After the Holy Mass, José Luis Mendoza, president of UCAM, gave a speech that begun with a special though and a prayer for all those who died due to the pandemic and their relatives. José Luis Mendoza highlighted that with “its own funds, the University financed 24 research projects related to COVID-19 in different areas of study, in particular the one led by Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua for the development of a treatment based on the use of the  gene-editing tool CRISPR, in order to recognise the RNA of the virus in infected lung cells, cut it away and therefore cure the illness” and he concluded by saying that throughout this academic year “the University invested 17 million Euro in research”.

He also added that “ we also launched other projects that are extremely interesting for the field of Health Sciences, such as the one we are developing in collaboration with Fundación Jiménez Díaz, on Vitamin C and Cancer, led by Dr. Óscar Aguilera”.

Social work

Likewise, he underlined that “throughout this coronavirus phase all students were duly taken care of through face-to-face, blended and online teaching, following the bimodal teaching model”.

José Luis Mendoza highlighted that “we continue being a non-profit family business that creates most jobs in the city of Murcia and that every year allows the Public Administration to save various millions of Euro”.

With regard to the political and social field, José Luis Mendoza expressed regret at “the suspension of the works of the Special Plan, which entails a halt for the expansion that is necessary for the University to grow, and that is causing serious economic damage to us”.

The President of UCAM also highlighted that “our politicians must be honest people, they must promote fair laws that defend the right of all Christians to educate their children in the faith they profess and they should not introduce laws that promote the culture of death such as abortion, euthanasia or sexual exploitation of women; all forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide are unacceptable and impermissible”. 

Support for the most disadvantaged  

José Luis Mendoza explained that “UCAM is helping a lot of people who does not have enough food” and he referred to Pope Francis, who “invites us all to fight for labour justice; without forgetting the immigrants, any injustice against the workers and the entrepreneurs, who create wealth and jobs, are an attack against human dignity”.

Celebration of the Eucharist

The Holy Mass, presided over by Monsignor José Manuel Lorca Planes, bishop of the Diocese of Cartagena, was celebrated by the Archbishop Emeritus of Burgos, Monsignor Francisco Gil. In his homily, José Manuel Lorca Planes wanted to highlight the important work carried out by the teachers of UCAM, and he also said a few words with regard to the current situation, which is marked by the pandemic. Facing the situation of insecurity that is now affecting a part of the population, the bishop of the Diocese highlighted that “Jesus Christ is our safety, and he does not ask us to do anything extraordinary, rather he asks us to get close to him with humility and to recognise his as out Lord and Saviour”.

Pilot test of an advanced video system

One of the novelties of the day was the launching of a video device that will be progressively installed in the classrooms and that was put to test during the event. The team of the Vice-chancellorship for Virtual Teachings installed an advanced recording system that allows to zoom in on the projected image in real time. If applied to teaching, this system is extremely useful since it allows a high level of precision when it comes to zooming in on the blackboard.  This novelty will be integrated in the strategy of  Digital Transformation of UCAM and of the programme of attention to diversity and disability.