The event, which took place at the seat of the UA in Benissa, has been attended by the five principals: Esteban Morcillo, Manuel Palomar, Francisco José Mora, Vicent Climent and Jesús Pastor.

Esteban Morcillo highlighted the feeling of cohesion and belonging at the Valencian public university system, of which he said, “it is also a pride for our citizenship and, undoubtedly, for our Government, represented here by the general director of Universities, Josefina Bueno, to whom he thanked her attendance to the act of relief of the presidency.

For his part, the new coordinator, Manuel Palomar, has insisted that one of the issues that “concerns us and will occupy over the next few months is just and sufficient financing, and has announced that in the coming days different meetings with the aim of analysing the situation will be held in different levels”. Furthermore, he has also explained that the coordination has an agreed turn between universities, so the vice presidency is for the Universitat Politècnica de València, which will hold the presidency in 2018; and the secretary is for the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, which will hold it in 2019.

For an active citizenship

The creation of the university network for seniors responds to the need of promoting an active citizenship prepared to maintain a cross-generational society. As Manuel Palomas has explained, “it is a commitment that has been assumed by the Valencian public universities for some time and now we are taking it a step further with the constitution of this work network in order to confront and assimilate the challenges that senior population in our territory raises”. The new president of the CRUPV has underlined that it aims to promote and make visible “his active participation in society, family level and education throughout live, voluntary work or cultural expression and sport”.

The Valencian public universities, which are integrated in the National Association of University Programmes for Seniors (AEPUM), have created the Valencian Network in order to enhance the University as an environment that promotes the training for seniors in the society, with new educational, training, and cultural structures; to establish collaboration and exchange channels; to propitiate the research in training programmes for an active ageing; to favour the exchange of good practice and experiences; to promote the joint work among universities and entities; to agree on strategic lines; to enable joint projects; to get funding; to make visible to the education community the meaning of training throughout life; and enhance the involvement in international programmes, among others.

In addition to the five principals of the Valencian public universities the event has been attended by the heads of the seniors programmes of different universities as well as the vice-principals with responsibilities in this area, the senior director of Universities, Josefina Bueno, and the mayor of Benissa, Abel Cardona.