Gdańsk (Poland), April 20, 2023.
Crue’s candidate Josep Maria Garrell has been elected new President of the European University Association (EUA) for the next four years (2023-2027) during the association’s General Assembly meeting held in Gdańsk (Poland) on Thursday, April 20. Garrell, who ran for this election with the British candidate, Janet Beer (University of Liverpool), and the Serbian candidate, Ivanka Popović (University of Belgrade), has obtained over 70% of the votes.
During the General Assembly, five new members of the Board were also elected: Vincent Blondel (University of Louvain), Marcin Palys (University of Warsaw), Astrid Söderbergh Widding (Stockholm University), Maurizio Tira (University of Brescia) and Wim van de Donk (Tilburg University). The new team led by Garrell will begin his term at the beginning of July.
The candidate put forward by Crue Spanish Universities has been Rector of the Universidad Ramon Llull (2012-2022) and EUA Board member since 2019. He will succeed Michael Murphy (Ireland) as President of EUA, which is formed by over 850 Higher Education institutions and university associations from 49 European countries, including 35 National Rectors’ Conferences.
After announcing the results, Garrell addressed the General Assembly and expressed his gratitude for the support received from his university, Universitat Ramon Llull, and from Crue Spanish Universities, that put forward his candidacy with the support of Spanish rectors. He also thanked representatives of EUA member institutions present in Gdańsk, for their trust and for electing him to lead this association. Furthermore, he underlined the value continued institutional engagement and collaboration of all EUA members, calling for active dialogue and coordinated work with the aim of guaranteeing that EUA continues being “the voice of universities in Europe”.
For the new EUA president, this association has undergone a ‘profound and very constructive’ transformation in recent years as a result of the engagement with National Rectors’ Conferences, a proactive approach from its Secretariat, and the allocation of portfolios to different Board members. In his view, all these initiatives have contributed to improving EUA’s overall operations and its impact in European higher education and research policies.
Among other initiatives, Garrell considers a that a mid-term priority is to review the EUA Strategic Plan and assess current initiatives and their implementation, making any adjustments deemed necessary for the proper implementation of the plan. Furthermore, it will be key to strengthen the political framework in which the new Board will work. This review, according to the new President of the EUA, will lay the foundations for the new strategic plan that will enter into force beyond 2025 and that must be drawn up during the new Presidency.
Likewise, he recalled his commitment to sustaining the EUA as the ‘main interlocutor’ for higher education, research and innovation in Europe and highlighted programs such as Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, European Strategy for Universities, or European Universities, as flagship EU policy initiatives where universities ‘must be heard’.
The future president has pointed out to the much-needed reflection on academic assessment, both individual and institutional, as a ‘complex’ subject with important consequences for universities at all levels. He has also asserted that it is necessary to lead a “profound” change in teaching and learning to respond to students’ needs, promote inclusion and digital transformation, as well as implement innovative practices, personalised learning approaches or lifelong learning.
About Josep Maria Garrell
Prof. Garrell graduated in Computer Engineering from Polytechnical University of Catalonia (UPC) in 1992. He holds a PhD in Electronic Engineering from Ramon Llull University (URL) in Barcelona. As a faculty member and researcher at URL, he specialized in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. He co-founded the Research Group on Intelligent Systems at La Salle-URL, where he was the Principal Investigator in numerous research projects and scientific publications. He was awarded a Catalan Research Foundation grant to broaden his work at Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh Supercomputing Centre, USA.
In 2012, Professor Garrell was appointed Rector of Ramon Llull University and his term in office finished in September 2022. During the last two years of his term, he has been leading the participation of URL as a candidate member in the EC funded “European University Alliance” ENGAGE.EU.
Before serving as rector, he has held several positions at URL’s rector’s office: Rector’s Delegate for ITs (2000-2002), Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation (2002-2010), Secretary General (2006-2012), and Vice-Rector for University Policy (2010-2012). During his mandate as SG, he led the project Aristos Campus Mundus, which was awarded the Campus of International Excellence label by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.
As rector, he has been a member of the Catalan Parliament Advisory Council on Science and Technology (CAPCIT) (2014-2022), and member of the Standing Committee of the Catalan Knowledge Society National Agreement (2018-2022). He served as vice-president of the Spanish National Rectors Conference (Crue) from 2021 to 2022, and as a member of its Standing Committee (2015-2022). He was focused on the institutional leadership of CRUE’s International Strategy, and he led the Spanish side of the Université Franco-Espagnole project. He also represented CRUE in the Council of the European University Association (EUA) from 2016 to 2019. He also served as first president of the global SACRU Alliance (2020-2022), mainly focused on the definition of the vision, mission and strategy of the alliance.
Prof. Garrell became a member of the EUA Board in April 2019. As a Board member, he has been championing the portfolio of Governance, Autonomy and Funding. He is the Institutional coordinator of the EUA’s ERASMUS+ funded project NEWLEAD, and he serves as chairman of the Autonomy Scorecard 2022 update Advisory Committee.
In 2019 he was awarded the honor of “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques” by the French Republic.
