A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
After more than nine years as president of AQU Catalunya, the time has come to say goodbye.
I will be very brief. The first thing I would like to say is thank you from the bottom of my heart, the second is to wish my successor, my friend Xavier Grau, every success, and the third and last thing is what I find essential in the Quality Agency.
(I)
AQU Catalunya is an independent agency of the Government of Catalonia, and for this reason my sincere thanks go to the people who have been responsible for universities and research in our government and who have always valued the work of the Agency. Starting with the Secretary for Universities and Research who proposed my appointment, Antoni Castellà, and continuing with Arcadi Navarro, Xavier Grau and, when the Ministry of Research and Universities was re-established, the ministers Gemma Geis and Joaquim Nadal. Many ministers were in charge prior to the re-establishment. When I was appointed, the Minister for Economy and Knowledge, to whom I have so many links, Andreu Mas-Colell, and later five others, perhaps as a symptom of the turbulent years that Catalan politics has experienced, the five ministers for Business and Knowledge: Jordi Baiget, Santi Vila, Josep Rull (one day only), Àngels Chacón and Ramon Tremosa.
But an institution like this already has a history, and what I have been able to do should be seen as the continuation of work, as cathedrals were built in the Middle Ages, as it were, started by the presidents Antoni Serra Ramoneda and Joaquim Prats and the directors David Serrat, Gemma Rauret, Javier Bará, Josep Anton Ferré, Martí Casadesús and, now, Jaume Valls.
And, most importantly, my heartfelt and sincere thanks to each and every one of the people who have worked at the Agency during these nine years, which I would like to extend to all the members of the commissions, with special emphasis on the wise and elegant cooperation of the president of the Research Assessment Commission, Lluís Torner, and the president of the Appeals Commission, Maria Pau Ginebra.
You know that I consider this institution to be an example of a public institution at the service of the country, and it is, crucially, because of the personal commitment of all of you, which has been shown even more clearly when . I would like to single out the people who have worked most closely with me for this thank you: the previous director, Martí, who certainly left his mark on me; the current director, Jaume, with whom I have a Girona connection and who has shown, in the year we have been together, that we are in very capable hands; the secretary of the Governing Board, Maria, which is her formal title, but who is many other things, and who is always the right helmswoman, and our Executive Board secretary, Montse, who is the secretary I have always wanted.
(II)
Being relieved by Xavier is the best thing that could happen to me; in Latin it is said finis coronat opus, and this is a very fortunate case that confirms the saying. I have known Xavier for many years, we were both rectors, he at the URV and I at the UPF, seven years together; and we always found in him a person who understood AQU Catalunya’s place perfectly and who encouraged us to open up new shortcuts. I believe that Xavier Grau is the person who knows the Catalan university system best; he has all the data, all the numbers, in his head, and he has them well ordered and organised to put in place the necessary scaffolding to build the future.
He knows better than anyone the challenges the Agency will face in the future: institutional accreditation, departmental assessment, deepening internationalisation, micro-credentials that will be central to lifelong learning and studies with which AQU Catalunya equips the system with tools for improvement.
I can only wish him, recalling Machiavelli in The Prince, much good fortune. Machiavelli said that the prince must have virtù e fortuna. I believe that Xavier has all the necessary virtues, the ethical and the dianoetic, and for this reason I hope that these virtues are accompanied by good fortune.
(III)
I would like to end with a thought that I have had over the last few days and which relates to the essential role of the Agency.
You know that my academic field is the intersection between law and philosophy; in fact, the research group I lead is called just that, Law & Philosophy. And it is from philosophy that I got the idea. It has come to me in two ways, one more anecdotal, the other more substantive.
Looking at them, and remembering that the owl was the symbol of the goddess Athena, patron of Athens and goddess of wisdom, I also thought it would be nice to adopt it for AQU Catalunya.
And now the same idea with more content: At the beginning of the second book of Metaphysics, Aristotle (Met., 993b9) says that when we search for truth we meet with the same circumstance that “the eyes of the night birds” meet with, which are apt to distinguish things in the dark but can be blinded by the light of day. I think this adequately reveals the essence of the which lies, it seems to me, in the ability to grasp the details, and therefore to propose ways to improve things interstitially, without losing the big picture, without losing the horizon, which gives it the light of day. If AQU Catalunya were to have a motto, as the old universities had, this would be appropriate, I think. In Greek it sounds like this,
ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ τῶν νυκτερίδων ὄμματα.
but normally the mottos were and are in Latin, therefore:
Sicut enim nyticoracum oculi.
And for that reason, and also because perhaps when you see it you will remember me, I leave you this small present as a token of what I’ve been telling you.
Many thanks!