The Universitat de València has coordinated, together with the Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education (SEPIE) and the collaboration of the Valencian public universities and the University of Murcia, the return of a group of 17 Erasmus students who had been confined in Portugal without the possibility of returning to their homes due to the alert state declared in the neighbour country and in Spain.
As a result of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the closure of international borders, the Universitat de València, through the International Relations and Cooperation Service of the UV and with the coordination of the vice-principal Carles Padilla, contacted a group of students who were in Oporto (Portugal) without teaching at university and who were willing to return to their homes as soon as possible.
To the initial group of UV students joined later other students from the Valencian universities (Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Universitat Politècnica de València, University of Alacant, Miguel Hernández University of Elche and from the University of Murcia, increasing to 17 people, which was the maximum number allowed to complete one third of the total capacity of the bus that had to pick them up and thus be able to maintain the required security measures and personal distance.
At the same time, procedures were started to obtain the necessary permits. On the one hand, through the SEPIE the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and for Health were consulted, and on the other hand, the Office of the Vice-Principal for Internationalisation and Cooperation itself contacted the Foreign Affairs Office, the Civil Guard and the National Police to obtain all the authorisations, as well as the travel agency.
Finally, last Friday 24 April, the bus left Oporto at 9:00 and, after travelling more than 1,000 kilometres, took the students to Castellón, Valencia, Gandia, Benidorm and Murcia.
The vice-principal Carles Padilla has expressed his satisfaction at the return of the students, 'a concern that the Universitat had since the closure of the borders at the beginning of this crisis.' Padilla thanked the other Valencian public universities, the SEPIE and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for their collaboration in carrying out the necessary procedures to allow the return of these students to their homes.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Universitat de València, through its Principal, M. Vicenta Mestre, and the Office of the Vice-Principal for Internationalisation and Cooperation, has been in permanent contact with the student body and staff of the different international programmes abroad. At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, contact was made with students in China, Japan and South Korea, from where the students returned in February. Subsequently, efforts were focused on Italy and France. At present, there is still a reduced number of students and researches outside our borders, in most cases waiting for the regular communications to be re-established.
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