Well, after hearing all this, which is a lot of information, we have to go
through the structure and organization of this alliance during these four years.
This is the work we have been doing during the previous years, in
very direct and very close collaboration with all the universities.
It has been a very interesting and exciting process.
We have already said, and I will not insist, but we have to say
that in this common organizational culture, we have to move them,
that is, now the question is all these ideas,
we have to formalize them, we have to land them.
Therefore, in this common organizational culture that we have talked about,
on the subject of quality, the first thing is to have a common quality plan,
which is where we are all starting to work.
On the subject of ethics and integrity, the same, a plan, for example, for the
ethical digital use, in which the alliance has to have these common points.
Because, as we have said, it is not that we are suddenly going to dilute
and disappear as universities, we are going to continue being ourselves,
but we now have to collaborate in a joint framework
that has to have a structure and a common organization.
The same for the subject of equality or diversity and inclusion, for
example, the gender equality plan, the open science and innovation plan,
or the digital plan for the subject of sustainability.
Well, that is a first approach to how
to land that organizational culture.
The work structure, we have four years ahead, we hope that it will be the first four
years of the rest of the life of the alliance in the future and in what is evolving.
How has it been structured? Well, it really
goes into what are the Erasmus+ categories,
as another project in that sense, which goes
with what they call work packages, work areas.
And the alliance is, as we are going to see now and as
we will explain later, organized in eight work packages,
of which one is led by the UNED, which is what Laura
said and you will see later, which Fernando will explain,
the one of internationalization and
multilingualism, which has a great weight,
and another is co-led by the UNED, which you will also
see later, which is the one of learning throughout life.
That translates into the fact that each
work package has 28 specific tasks,
and those tasks are in turn divided into
sub-tasks, which are 100 specific ones,
and those tasks have a completion
time, which is like any other project.
They are not in the world of ideas, but
they have to be landed on specific issues,
which is what the European Union approved as a
project, of which 17 are led or co-led by the UNED.
As you can see, there is a more or less proportional
distribution among all the social universities
in the responsibility, both as leaders or
co-leaders, of each of these sub-tasks,
but it must be said, and I think it's important,
that in the practical totality of almost all of them,
all the universities are involved.
It's not that suddenly one is the leader
and has to organize absolutely everything.
No, all the universities participate in most
of all those tasks that have to be developed,
but there will always be someone who
leads or co-leads that action together.
As in any other European project, that
gives rise to 37 specific deliverables,
three of which are the responsibility of the UNED.
And how do we organize this?
As I said, each work package is led or co-led by,
and each task or sub-task, by one of the partners,
so this implies that this is what we are
starting to do, since we started the first steps,
starting with organizational meetings, in
which we have to see what the next steps are.
I would like to point out that it's true that there
were four summits of alliances of European universities,
and there are no more than the European Commission said
it was going to do, there are no more at the moment,
so we are entering the last one, but at least in
the previous three in which the UNED participated,
in the first one we had a quality seal, in
the second one we had the first reservation,
so if one hadn't entered, OpenEU would
have entered, and in the third one,
in the third one we participated, there
had been four summits, we entered.
So how do we organize all this, all the teams?
Because, of course, we have to generate the work teams
and the teams of responsibility at different levels.
Well, to face, on the one hand, these
challenges that we have already discussed,
that is, learning throughout life, educational
inclusion, digital education research,
digital education training, there are these four work packages,
and in the first one we co-lead, but in turn it is
necessary, and there are the other four work packages,
to make that alliance work, to make it well structured, and
for that we need some work packages that are transversal.
The first one, of course, like in any other
project, is governance and management,
there has to be someone who is, in some way, already
making the final decisions and doing all the monitoring.
But then there is this work package, which
we will talk about in the second part,
of internationalization, mobility and
joint programs, which is led by the UNED,
which is transversal to all, because it has
to lay the foundations, as you will see later,
of many of the issues that OpenEU has to
develop in a global or integrated way.
And then there is another work package, also
transversal, which is to commit the university community
and also to what we would call stakeholders,
which I never know how to translate,
that is, structures, organizations, associations
within society that participate and are interested.
So what we have, and that is the purpose,
is to generate a committed community.
And finally, as in any other project, there is a
work package that has to do with communication,
with the dissemination that has to be done throughout the
project, and with what is called advocacy or promotion,
which means bringing the results that we are
obtaining to European organizations, for example,
in which things we can indicate that we have to improve and so on,
that is, how we make this transfer to international organizations
and other associations or important organizations doing this work.
We have developed the joint educational offer.
To clarify, it is not that initially a student
from another university is going to do our degrees,
but we have to generate a specific
offer, which is the international offer.
And that offer will go from programs,
especially at the end of the four years,
when we can talk about joint or master's degree programs,
which is the work we are starting to do, and then we will
talk about the first one that is already at the doorstep.
We will also talk about the other open
master's degrees that are intended,
about the whole offer of microcredentials, but many other
types of offers that we are going to make internationally,
in which interested people and students
from our university can participate.
Programs that are much more, let's say, light,
they are not big programs of four years,
but all the educational offer we can make,
including summer courses, extension courses,
everything we can offer that, instead
of staying at the doorstep, let's say,
we open internationally as we make these goals possible.
As Fernando said, all this in a context
where we have an additional gain,
and it is our experience in virtual mobility,
in hybrid mobility, in blended mobility,
and also, that's what the European Commission
asked us, that we don't stay there alone,
that is, that we also do face-to-face mobility.
And then, well, we will also have to offer face-to-face
mobility spaces within the Allianza universities.
But we also have that great base, when we talk about
inclusion, when we talk about learning over the course of life,
of having very solid bases of experience
in virtual mobility or hybrid mobility,
and all the technological infrastructure that requires it.
This will involve some technological spaces, and there, the
vice-rectorates of technology have a lot to say and to collaborate,
because it is not that we are going to
merge into a single learning platform.
Now, what is being analyzed and seen is how we are going to develop this.
There will be a new web portal, not the one we have now, but a new one,
where everything else is integrated into that idea of interoperability.
And in that portal, which is the responsibility
of the UNED, its design, we are working on that,
everything that has to do with the
daily life of OpenEU will be introduced,
also with a learning platform that will be more like an umbrella,
where other platforms, in an interoperable way, can have their space,
so that students can navigate as transparently as possible.
Don't ask how right now, because it's not done yet.
This is what we have to work on, that is the challenge,
and the challenge that the other Allianzas are facing.
That's why it's very important to be in
those associations like UEUE, from Española,
but also the European one, in relation to what
problems everyone is facing with the "Join Programs".
This is to advance in a new field.
And another platform that we are going to start
working on, in its design, along with the UOC,
which is an open platform for what is being generated,
which is a platform for participation, communication,
a more interactive space for all the needs that are being generated.
All this, how is it managed in turn?
In a government or management structure?
There is a board of directors, there is a
board of directors, the Executive Board,
where vice-directors are generally,
in our case, both Laura and Fernando.
And then, these work packages, in turn, have
been organised in areas that will be followed up,
which have to do with the WorkPacks, which have more
to do with development and education programmes,
such as the long-term, or for example, joint programmes,
or anything that has to do with programmes for
people, minorities or underrepresented groups.
Another board will have to do with digital education,
from the point of view of research, innovation and training.
And another is the most transversal community work packages,
of community creation and governance.
But where does it start working, in the day-to-day?
Where does it start running? In the WorkPacks,
in those networks that we are already working on,
where teams are formed, the people responsible for each task,
because, think about it, although each WorkPackage,
as I said before, has a leader and a co-leader,
each university has its representative in that WorkPackage,
and each task and sub-task has its representative,
who will be in those work teams.
The student council is very important, it wants them to
have an important role in the different work packages,
and each university has to propose, we are in this,
it has to choose, with the system that
decides, two students from each university,
so a total of 20, and these will also be in the different work areas.
And the institutional coordination team, that is,
each institution has an institutional coordinator,
in this case I have a bit of the academic coordination part,
but of course supported by all the support
that the internationalisation team has.
And there is a general secretariat, which
is a structure that is starting to work,
but which already has its people responsible,
and at an external level, like all projects,
there is the external advisory board,
the board of what we used to call the stakeholders,
the community of practices, in which, for example,
the European Union has created for the alliances.
This needs support, in turn, with the secretariat, the coordinations,
the great coordination of the alliance,
the institutional coordinations,
and three offices, the quality one, the internationalisation
and joint actions of the whole alliance,
and the communication one of the whole alliance,
where the units within each university will be
integrated, and each one has its people responsible.
As you can see, it is designed for us to start
working in an organised and structured way,
and the important thing now is to have good teams.
What happened when we started working?
Well, it started working in this way.
The team that has been working in the last three years, evidently,
was the rector, the vice-rectorate of
internationalisation and multilingualism,
with Laura and Fernando at the front,
and the internationalisation office,
which was there from the very beginning.
I was doing a bit of that link, and also a bit of coordination,
as director of the UNESCO category of distance education.
That allowed me, also because of the knowledge
of many people within the institution,
to connect, to get in touch with different vice-rectorates,
units, information processing offices for data
collection, which required general coordination,
well, you will see, the school of computer
science, the faculty of education, UNIDIS,
in short, during all this time of work,
each work package, in turn, had to have
someone from the UNED who was there.
And I am very grateful to, well, you see here,
people who were directly linked, who had, at that time, for example,
management positions that were related or experience,
and who, in turn, let me say that they were also
members of the UNESCO category of distance education,
such as Juan Carlos Pérez González, Tiberio Feliz,
who are from the Faculty of Education, or Ines Gil too,
Rafael Pastor, as director of the computer science school,
Olga Santos, also from the computer science school,
and many other people who were involved in different areas
that had to do with seeing how these work packages were being developed,
which we were going to propose to the European Commission.
Well, here we have reached this, I think it was January 17th,
what they call the Kikof meeting in Barcelona,
where there was already the first formal
meeting of the government teams of OpenEU
with their own teams from each of the universities.
And this first part, we are going to finish it with this idea,
that the European Commission also, what it tells us,
is that transnational education is no longer an option,
which is a crucial need in these times.
We can no longer be each in their own university separately,
but we have to form what Europe also
calls those great educational ecosystems,
and in our case, a great digital educational ecosystem.
This part, this first part, I think we have finished.
I don't know if we have time right now for questions,
it would be better to move on to the second session,
where we are going to talk about the
work packages and then the questions.
For the time being.
Okay, if there is a microphone here,
the questions for those of you who know that
they are being broadcast on the UNED channel,
that there is a space to send your messages,
and then we will try to give an answer at the end.
I am receiving it in an email that has been proposed,
and we will see what you are proposing.
One of the messages was from a student,
who we are very grateful that you are also connected,
who asked how you got to be able to participate.
That is one of the questions that we will also talk about at the end,
but we will also comment on how from now on we will
establish all the contacts with the different collectives.
Thank you.
I think that on behalf of everyone,
I can thank you for the work you have developed,
that is to start with, and that being in Europe is fine.
But I have questions, because when I have the verbs
"promote", "accelerate", "train", "encourage",
all the verbs of the same conjugation
sound fatal to me when you write a project,
because it means that you don't get to make
it concrete, which is also one of the ways.
It is all very well organized, but I have very simple questions.
One, how much does the amount that corresponds to
the UNED and what is it going to be dedicated to?
Because it seems to me that it is one of the ways,
it seems to me that it would be good to know.
Then, concrete objectives and how does this affect,
how does it really affect this, I don't
know if it's "open EU" or "open EU",
or how to say it, because it's the same for me,
this alliance of universities, as there are always alliances.
How does the UNED really affect?
Because I have seen things as examples, sustainable
research careers, and I don't know what else.
How can that affect it?
Are those the Spanish laws? How is it going to affect it?
Because that doesn't lead us to understand very
well how I can make objectives that I don't control.
If it depends on the rules, and I put it there, then it's ok.
Then, if the objectives are going to vary with
respect to what is happening right now in Europe,
it is possible that it is, that it is possible that that part of green
will go to a darker part, which is called
"poorly uranium" and things like that.
So, maybe we have to think about it, if we
have to have the energy, that it would change.
Then, the other thing I had is, there's
something I don't like, perverting language.
And virtual mobility, mobility comes from
Latin, it comes from Latin, it says "movement".
So, if it's virtual and I don't move,
I think we should put the right terms,
I mean, it's not ok to use bad translations.
That's not mobility, that's digital connectivity, if you want.
But not mobility, mobility seems to me
an euphemism that should not be used.
I'm sorry, I really like my language
and I'm annoyed that it's used badly.
And mobility means moving, and what we're
going to do is be in front of a screen.
And then, I have one more thing here,
but I don't remember why I wrote it.
So, intraoperability. We're going to have common databases, and so on.
For God's sake, when we have common databases,
the UNED database is the same as the ones used,
and there are no errors, and they put me, like
in my department, 10 more professors than I had,
then it will be fine. But we're going to fix our house first.
Maybe that's why we need that money, to
fix our house first, and then go outside.
So, these are questions that I think any
professor would ask, and that would help us.
Where will the money go? And, well, nothing else.
Let's see, the exact amount, Nieves knows it better, but
it's around 1.5 million that corresponds to the UNED.
There are 10 universities, and we, in terms of amount, are the second.
I think that the UOC has 1.7 million, and we have 1.
5 million, which will be used, of course, to carry out
the tasks, sub-tasks, and the deliverables
that we promised we would carry out.
So, all the spending that is done will come
from the funding, it won't come from the UNED.
And it's an advance, I think, we believe, with a broad vision,
of integration in Europe, and we believe
and understand that it will benefit us,
although there are always things to fix.
The other universities will also have things to
fix, within their own universities, without a doubt.
But this is a step that had to be taken, which is now
the new way of seeing how education is going in Europe.
And we understood, also thanks to the vision of the Rector,
who entrusted me that we had to be in an
alliance, not because he came up with it,
but because this is how it is now, and we
normally have to go with how education is going,
and how the times are going, in the place we are in, which is Europe.
And we understand that this is for the benefit
of all, although there will always be drawbacks,
and we will have to deal with those drawbacks, but
it is better to have the funding than not to have it.
And yes, it's not that what you said about the
objectives that were so very ephemeral, they are not,
because there are, as we have said, there
are work packages with specific objectives,
with specific tasks and with specific
sub-tasks that are assigned to universities,
people and institutions within the
universities that are going to carry them out,
so in fact we are already doing them.
For example, the joint degree in which the UNED is working,
it already has a lot with the University of the
Netherlands, the open one, with the UOC, and us.
And this is going to be a reality, I think,
from the next course, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, Rafa Pastor, whom I thank for not being here
today, but I thank him very much for his involvement
and because he has also worked hard to get this project forward,
because the UNED will start with this degree.
But among that, like that, many more things.
As for interoperability, I leave it to Fernando,
because since he is in the work package
1, he can speak better about it.
No, I am not an expert in interoperability,
but it is obvious that it is not something
that we have invented in the UNED.
The alliances have to work, they have to
increase the interoperability of their systems
for the offer they make, to make it more efficient,
so that teachers, students, etc., are not on many screens,
because that is misleading, it is not efficient, etc.
There are different areas, but well, interoperability, deep down,
is about different systems sharing data,
fulfilling functions together, and making
the tasks they have to do more efficient.
I am not going to say more, because then
the experts in information technologies
and others have to come to see how that works.
But even for the non-expert, I think he
can see that it is not only convenient,
but necessary to advance in these things.
It is true that nobody has their home perfectly organized,
and that some things in the platforms of the UNED,
like the platforms of the whole world, are better,
but maybe having these challenges also helps to transform
and increase the quality of the systems we have inside.
The same thing I trust, but it is also true that this is my idea,
I trust that the fact of having to make a joint educational offer
with other universities, which are the most important in the continent,
is an opportunity for us to continue
increasing the quality of what we do,
the same at a technological level.
So, facing that challenge also helps to improve what is purely UNED.
And then, if you allow me, regarding this notion of virtual mobility,
I am not the father of the child, I have come across that concept.
It is a concept, on the other hand,
in which the UNED has been a pioneer, if I am not mistaken.
And then, although I understand what Professor Antoraz means,
when we talk to other universities about virtual mobility,
everyone knows what we are talking about, everyone understands it,
and knows that it is a type of mobility that contributes
to some things and extends the possibility of
internationalization to people who did not have it,
or who did not have it, and that can also be combined,
it admits hybrid, mixed, etc. combinations.
It is a concept that I have come across, and in the position I am in,
I have to work with the concepts that are handled in this area.
It is a very consolidated concept,
and I have not seen anyone question it
in any of the universities we work with,
although, of course, any questioning is welcome.
I understand what is being said, and that can also encourage us to say,
well, let's combine virtual mobility in the best possible way
so that it contributes to the greatest internationalization
that it can contribute to those who otherwise would not have it.
If you allow me, it is a question of terminology.
Terms have the meaning that speakers of a language decide in a community,
which means that in the European universities community,
and in the world, I would say, there
is a concept that is virtual mobility,
which is accepted by all its speakers,
which in general, well, is spoken in
English, and we talk about virtual mobility,
and everyone agrees that it is the exception,
we talk about virtual mobility, which is a more inclusive mobility,
for example, for disabled people who
for some reason cannot move physically,
they have the opportunity to enter the virtual world,
to belong to another university through a program, whatever,
and that is part of inclusivity.
So, as linguists, I also say that this correction is a concept
that linguists do not handle, but it is not
that something is correct or not correct.
In reality, we are talking about acceptance.
Whether or not the community accepts it,
in a certain community, and that's it.
And that is accepted as a term that we all understand what it is,
and it is still mobility, that's why.
It is a type of mobility, and it has a
different acceptance than initial mobility,
but there are many terms that have
that same polysemy, let's say, right?
So, I don't know, now I say it.
Yes, we are not going to go into that, yes, that idea is to say that,
at a global level, it is understood
like this, it is talked about mobility,
and that is the idea indicating that mobility is not only physical,
but also mental, it is also emotional,
that is, there are many other things that have to do with that,
with the inclusion of being able to make
people have richer international experiences
in their training, and they have given that term.
But, as we have to move on to the next session, I would say that,
effectively, we are all saying, let's see how we develop this.
Exactly the same as we all have been here for many years,
when we started with the European Higher Education Space,
when we got the whole European normative,
when we said, well, in 2010 we all started,
and all our titles have to be transformed,
and our methodologies and our platforms, well, we did it.
So, now, I think that Europe has gone a little further than that,
to say that Europe, really, if it is conceived as Europe,
it has to have large European universities,
and the only way they have thought, and I think with good criteria,
is that it has to start with alliances,
alliances of universities that do things together.
What problem does that have associated with it?
That everything has to be developed, starting with the normative.
And that normative, the European Commission knows very well,
which involves the ministries of education of the countries,
which involves the governments of the universities,
which involves the quality agencies, and that is why they are working,
they are also financing projects that support
the alliances in the problems they are finding.
So, we are in a field that is being built,
and we hope, hopefully, it is true, as you have said,
that this "green" does not become another type of "green",
that makes us lose the opportunity to grow,
more so at the level of the intellectual and personal level.
I don't know, what happens is that we
have to move on to the second part, and leave some time for the end.
Hello, I am a student, and I think that students are the basis,
well, my name is Javier Vidal, I am a
delegate of psychology at Madrid Centro.
I started studying many years ago, law, autonomous,
and I know how the face-to-face classes
work, and in this case, the UNEP.
And in all the students we are at the lowest
level, but where we are not heard much,
because we do not have the strength, we do not have the votes,
we do not have the ability to decide.
Now, this, that you are talking about,
and that you have exposed very well,
and I congratulate you, raises a question for me.
Regardless of the jargon and semantic values that each word can have,
because that is changing, and if you
are a linguist you know it perfectly,
you just have to look at Latin and even European languages,
how it has been developing.
So, the important thing is whether this
project will take into account the students,
or whether we will continue as we are doing now.
Well, and the final question is, you were talking about two students,
I think it is a bit much for the whole department,
of students, of students, of students,
of students, of students, of students, of students, of students,