ICTs solutions

Last Monday, the principal of the Universitat de València, Mª Vicenta Mestre, wrote a letter to the Minister for Universities and to the Valencian Minister for Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society and to the Valencian Minister for Treasury and Economic Model.

In these letters she asked for the implementation of a line of aids equivalent to those run by the Ministry for Education and Professional Training and the Valencian Minister for Education, Culture and Sports for the pre-university levels. This aids would be aimed at increasing the availability of technological resources and/or Internet connections for university students with problems in keeping up with the non-presential teaching resulting from the alert state.

'We have to prevent anyone from being left behind', said the principal of the UV. 'And a way to avoid this is to fight the digital gap. ICTs solutions should be given to those students who do not have, and cannot afford, computer equipment and/or Internet connection, in this context of non-presential teaching.'

That same Monday, the Minister for Universities, Manuel Castell, asked the principal of the Universitat de València to send the Ministry an assessment of necessities to the Ministry through the CRUE, in order to study the possibilities of setting up aid programmes.

In order to accurately quantify these needs of the students of the Universitat de València, and to provide direct information to public authorities in the event that they initiate procedures for the allocation of ICT resources, the Universitat de València in coordination with the CRUE-Spanish Universities have developed a survey to be answered by all students.

This survey will complement the information on the real possibilities of the students of the Universitat de València to follow the online teaching.

It will also serve to know which people need ICT solutions in the case that these aids asked by the Universitat de València were granted.

They survey has been sent by e-mail this afternoon to all students of the Universitat de València.

Mobility solutions

In the meeting with the Minister for Universities and in view of the alert state with its subsequent limitations to people's mobility, the principal of the Universitat de València, Mª Vicenta Mestre, has also asked for the possibility of issuing documents that are validly recognised by all the local, autonomic and state security forces, in order to allow the students to travel from their family residences to their residences during the academic year to collect their notes, materials and computer equipments, allowing them to finish the course.

The Minister for Universities was in favour of finding a solution to this situation in the near future, within the framework of the extension of the alert state, when the confinement measures currently established are eased.

The Universitat de València will inform the university community about the procedures for applying the accreditations that the Spanish government requires once they have the authorisation and the instructions for issuing valid documents and with legal guarantees that enable the students to go on these travels.

On the other hand, the Universitat de València is sending the materials found in the rooms of the residents of the Rector Peset Hall of Residence, property of the Universitat de València, to their family residences if they ask for it.