Present Faculty of Economics used to be the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies created in 1966 as a new centre of the historical Universitat de València. This is how the licentiate program of Political, Economic, and Business Studies started and gave rise to the degrees in Economics and Business Administration and Management.

Dulce Contreras Bayarri was among a few women who promoted the studies, which lasted until 1970-1971. In her student times, she remembers “a breath of fresh air” associated the professors when the centre had only opened and which later became a national and international benchmark.

In the years to come, she developed her PhD thesis under supervision of Dr. Antonio Pulido Sanromán, a professor at the Universitat de València and later at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Dulce Contreras defended her PhD thesis, “Analysis of Temporal Series: Evaluation and Combination of Projections in Various Valencian Sectors”, in 1978 and thus received her PhD.

In 1992, she became a full university professor in Economic Analysis. In her teaching role, Dr. Contreras made use of innovation strategies and was the first female professor to give classes in Valencian and in English. Her work was recognised with six five-year teaching cycles. Dulce Contreras also had a 24-year experience as a researcher.

Thanks to her teaching and research experience, she became an expert forming a part of the professor assessment programme of the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain (ANECA) as well as of the autonomous agencies of the Basque Country and Catalonia.

As a woman committed to democracy and participation, Dulce Contreras was a member of the Senate which in 1984 gave place to the Universitat de València charter within the framework of the Spanish Law for the University Reform.

She was a member of this institutional body for a long time and represented the professors and department directors at the Governing Board and the Governing Council of the Universitat de València on various occasions.

Dulce Contreras was also a vice-principal for the staff policies at the Universitat de València. This achievement of a woman pioneering in the university management was celebrated during a ceremony on 23 May 2017 at the Paraninfo Hall of the Universitat de València.

Her committment to the university management and policies was also expressed at her Faculty, where she was the member of the highest governing body - the Board of the Centre - the first one of the Faculty of Economic and Business Studies and later of the new Faculty of Economics. She managed the Department of Economic Analysis for fifteen years during various periods.

A member of the Board of Trustees and of the Executive Board of the General Foundation of the Universitat de València, she was titled a professor emeritus in 2015 and fulfilled her role during two consecutive periods as permitted by regulations

On Friday 27 March, the professor Dulce Contreras Bayarri passed away as a result of a recently diagnosed disease.

The dean of the Faculty of Economics, José Manuel Pastor, a professor at the Department of Economic Analysis, emphasized that “she was a role model as a director, which was evident only from observing how she welcomed new professors at the department for the past thirty years. She surely made us feel like home from the very start.” The dean has also expressed his appreciation for the work of Dulce Contreras not only at the Faculty but also beyond the UV.

The Principal of the Universitat de València, M. Vicenta Mestre, expressed her condolences to the dean of the Faculty of Economics for the loss of the person who was “a woman who set an example for the Universitat de València and characterised by her commitment to the institution, ability to dialogue, and strong beliefs, as well as her humanity and good personal qualities.”

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The information was elaborated as a part of institutional communication on behalf of the Principal’s Office of the Universitat de València. It is based on the information provided by the dean’s office of the Faculty of Economics to commemorate the professor emeritus of the Universitat de València, Dr. Dulce Contreras Bayarri, as well as on the following bibliographic references (in Spanish):

CERVERA FERRI, PABLO (coord.) (2017): 50 años de la Facultat d’Economia de la Universitat de València. València: Universitat de València.

MENGUZZATO BOULARD, MARTINA (dir.) (2009): La dirección de empreses ante los retos del siglo XXI: Homenaje al professor Juan José Renau Piqueras. València: Universitat de València