The president of the Diputació de València, Toni Gaspar, and the vice-principal for Territorial Projection and Society of the Universitat de València, Jorge Hermosilla, have gathered on Wednesday, the 6th of March, in order to design a programme of activities they will carry out throughout 2019. Among other activities, the Diputació de València joins Unisocietat, which currently has 1,700 students all over its 12 territorial seats.
The academic and provincial institutions have agreed to be present in all Valencian regions through a series of conferences given by the teaching staff and the researchers of the Universitat de València. This series of conferences will tackle the current processes which condition the territory of Valencia, like depopulation, economic specialisation, agricultural crisis and citrus difficulties, as well as the value of strategic areas and other issues of social scope like migration or social segregation. Both institutions will also collaborate in the making of an audiovisual aid which will focus, from a regional point of view, on territorial processes and recent transformations that condition the Valencian territory.
Furthermore, vice-principal Jorge Hermosilla and the president of the Diputació have established that the provincial institution will cooperate in the activities the Unisocietat programme carries out in its 12 seats: Gandia, Requena, Benetússer, Quart de Poblet, Paterna, l'Eliana, Cullera, Alzira, Bétera, Massamagrell, Ontinyent and Riba-roja de Túria. In this university programme, more than 250 lecturers of the Universitat de València participate. 1,700 students get enrolled. Apart from the core subjects given in the 120 yearly school hours, Unisocietat also offers monthly conferences with free entry, as well as trips and complementary activities that will allow the students to get to know and understand Valencian territory. Unisocietat is sponsored by Caixa Popular in 10 seats, Caixa Ontinyent (in the Ontinyent Campus) and Banco Santander (in Unimajors Gandia).
Finally, the fourth action both institutions will cooperate in will be the paper publication of the 14 volumes that form the digital version Estudis comarcals de la província de València, which consists in a review of geography, agriculture, industry, labour market, tourism, trading, heritage, infrastructure... All of this present in the region.
The president of the Diputació de València, Toni Gaspar, has explained that the Diputació ‘is still collaborating with the Universitat de València as a public institution inclined to its connection with Valencian territory.’ On his behalf, the vice-principal has pointed out that involvement in provincial institutions ‘will allow the Universitat to be present in all Valencian regions thanks to education, research and the transfer of knowledge from its researchers’. The Diputació is also cooperating with the Universitat in the Programa d’Universitats Estacionals, which currently has 12 seats in 8 regions.
