Valencia, March 3rd, 2023. From the 2nd to the 4th of March, over 250 participants from 70 university student residence halls from all around Spain and Italy will meet in the University of Valencia in the 44th edition of its annual seminar. Members of the direction teams from the residence halls and the University of Valencia, students, institutional representatives from the Comunitat Valenciana and renowned experts in education are participating on the seminars, conferences and work tables to reflect about “University Student Residence Halls and education 360º: integral formation for a whole life”. The city of arts has been raised in a space of exchange of good practices and in a factory of ideas to elevate the extracurricular formation imparted in the residence halls to a new level.

In the opening act, that took place in the Paraninfo of the University of Valencia, we could find the Magnificent Rector of the University of Valencia, Dr. Mavi Mestre Escrivà: the Councillor of Education of the Valencia City Hall, María Teresa Ibáñez Giménez; the General Director of Universities of the Generalitat Valenciana, Pilar Ezpeleta Piorno; the President of the Council of University Student Residence Halls of Spain, Juan Muñoz Martín; and the Director of the Residence Hall Rector Peset, Carles Xavier López. The inaugural conference was handled by Adela Cortina, renowned philosopher, chairman of ethics of the University of Valencia and director of the Foundation Étnor.

“The residence halls are spaces of integral education with a sometimes unknown task. However, they are extracurricular spaces that are not only shared with the students but also with society”, says María Teresa Ibáñez Giménez, councillor of Education of the Valencia City Hall. On her behalf, Pilar Ezpeleta Piorno, General Director of Universities of the Generalitat Valenciana, highlights the value of the residence halls for the future of society. “Personally, I have a very special bond with the residence halls of the University of Valencia” she starts. “The residence halls create a feeling of belonging and are the clear example of permanent formation; formation of identity, competences, intellectual excellence and civic compromise”, continues.

After the inauguration, the work tables that will be developed between the Cultural Centre La Nau and the Faculty of Medicine will start, and they will share one theme: the formative projects that residence halls put at service of the university community. This will be addressed from areas like art, culture and sport; the complementary formation in residence halls; social class, volunteering and sustainability; and cohabit and democratic participation.

On the 4th of March, the seminars will end with an act that will count with the participation of the vice-rector of Culture and Sports of the University of Valencia, Dr. Ester Alba Pagán. Conclusions obtained during the sessions will be exposed and a frame of good practices will be proposed to design, create and implement projects of extracurricular formation that take place in residence halls.

“We want the seminars to be a dialogue and reflection space that will allow us to analyse and reword the formation projects that complement the learning of the students in residence halls. In a society every time more plural and diverse and in an environment marked by the continuous transformation and change, it is necessary to check the resources and methods used to offer a formation that can adapt to the new needs of the students”, says Juan Muñoz Martín, President of the Council of University Student Residence Halls. “Along with the students, we are looking to create a guide of good practices that will allow us to offer an integral formation centred in the transversality without losing the civic values and that will allow us to reach our goal as formation centres of the University”, he adds.

During her intervention, the rector of the University of Valencia, María Vicenta Mestre, highlights that “the university stage is a vital experience that goes beyond the formation with academic orientation, it is a time in which we forge our cohabitation of citizenship, a new frame of vital experiences and personal emancipation.”

“At the same time” adds professor Mestre, “the Residence Halls are way more than a place where university students live. They are spaces of cohabitation and socialization where concern arises, ideas and experiences are exchanged. They are, as well, spaces where people grow, learn how to live with equals, learn values that they will take with them their whole lives.”

Lastly, she admits “the importance of an institution like the Council of University Student Residence Halls existing, to allow sharing experiences, to establish combined programs, to facilitate the life of the student body with the coordination with each other”, the same way she wishes for the seminars to be successful.

About the Council of University Student Residence Halls of Spain

The Council of University Student Residence Halls of Spain is an association from the State with 110 members, constituted with the goal to look out for the nature and high function of the Residence Halls in the university area, serve as means of communication and cooperation between the Residence Halls of the Spanish State and assume and represent the general interest of the group.

Its creation was in 1979, during the II seminar about Residence Halls celebrated in Córdoba and in 1980, during the III seminar about Residence Halls in Madrid, the Regulation of the Council was approved before the National Committee of Residence Halls.