Universitat de València has been awarded during the second edition of the Telefónica Ability Awards for being the best public sector firm. This prize acknowledges the Spanish firms or institutions, both public and private, which have the added social value of giving attention to disability.
Universitat de Valènica, from now on acknowledged as Ability entity, has been awarded one of the prizes for developing a sustainable model which integrates attention to disability. Yesterday, the Principal, Esteban Morcillo, received the prize in an awards ceremony chaired by Queen Sofía in Madrid. The Vice-Principal for Teaching Staff and Academic Arrangement María Vicenta Mestre and the head of the UV’s Unit for the Integration of People with Disabilities, Celeste Asensi, were also present.
The Principal stressed that the award was won by all the people who make these policies possible. He referred to the Office of the Vice-Principal for Teaching Staff and Academic Arrangement, and particularly to the Unit for the Integration of People with Disabilities. According to him, ‘they make all the university community aware and better, they make us achieve an excellence university for a more united society with the European social model.’
Asensi said that this prize ‘acknowledges a work that is being done for many years. It is not given to us by chance, but all the principals and their teams at UV have gone for the attention to disability.’
The road to the award
The academic institution was the only public firm to pass the six main categories set by the Ability awards thanks to its unit for the integration of people with disabilities, which is managed by the UV’s General Foundation. The nomination was fulfilled with one of Campus Sostenible’s action that was led by the Office of the Vice-Principal for Teaching Staff and Academic Arrangement.
To be a candidate to the award, Universitat de València had to get through some filters and pass an independent audit. The tests concluded that the institution favors integration of people with disabilities (both students and staff), equality and variety are promoted, as well as quality work for disabled people, accesibility, policy of inclusive culture within the institution, and society’s development.
414 submissions from more than 230 institutions applied their candidatures to the awards. 50 entities became finalists, Universitat de València among them.
Eight universities, public and private, were also qualified with UV: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universitat d’Alacant, Universidad de Deusto, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Universidad Católica de Valencia, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Universidad de Murcia.
The Telefónica Ability Awards is a pioneer initiative in Spain which is projecting to the international level. It is planned to take this model of prizes to Germany, United Kingdom, and Brazil.
Last update: 31 de october de 2012 10:37.
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