The Senate of the Universitat de València approved last Tuesday the new Electoral Regulations of the institution, which will establish the new regulatory framework for the next elections to the Senate and the representative bodies of the faculties and school, to take place on 18 and 19 November. The new regulations introduce electronic voting as a system of participation in these electoral processes.

The session of the Senate, held in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philosophy and Science Education, also included the approval of amendments to the Senate’s and Governing Council’s internal regulations, as well as the adaptation of the composition and the functioning of the Statutes Committee, and the composition of the committees for Teaching, Linguistic Policy, Studies, Research and Transfer. All these proposals were approved. 

The approval of the Electoral Regulations was the agenda item that generated the most debate. One of the issues discussed was the possibility of incorporating the electronic voting and allowing voters to cast their vote more than once —meaning that only the last vote will be considered valid. The initial text was modified to propose not incorporating this feature to avoid possible pressure dynamics, to equate the system to the in-person voting and align it for the Universitat d’Alacant and the Universitat Politècnica de València. Finally, the amendment was not incorporated into the regulations after not being supported enough in the voting.

The order of the candidacies on the platform of electronic voting was also discussed. After considering the proposed amendment, the Electoral Commission decided to incorporate it, so the order will be randomly determined each time in every access, or it will be determined by public draw by the Electoral Commission, to guarantee the neutrality of the interface and equal conditions for all candidacies.

Principal’s report

During his report, Principal Juan Luis Gandía congratulated former professor Antonio Ariño for receiving the National Award of Sociology and Political Science 2026, as well as José Antonio Sobrino for the National Research Award. He also congratulated the Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication and the Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy for obtaining the institutional certificate of the University Council.

Gandía also highlighted the reach and impact of the Astronomical Observatory of the Universitat de València on the occasion of the solar eclipse on 12 August, and informed about the recent approval by the Governing Council of the electronic voting implementation, which will be launched for the November elections.

The Principal stated that the Universitat is working on a new emergency protocol that will establish clear criteria for action under different situations, both in moments of intense rain and heat phenomena.

The principal announced that, next 20 October, the Universitat will hold a tribute to Ramon Lapiedra in the Assembly Hall, after his death last July. It’s an event in which the entire university community is invited to participate.

Renewal of the committees and statutory bodies

In the section about the composition of the different collegiate bodies, the Senate appointed Daniel García Fernández as a substitute member of the Senate Bureau in behalf of students and Julia Gisbert Pérez as a member of the Statutes Committee in behalf of researchers in training.

With the agreements adopted in this session, the Senate completed the updating of the regulatory framework governing its representative bodies and approved the regulations that will rule the next electoral processes of the Universitat de València.