Eva María Giner, rector of the International University of Valencia (VIU), defends that the need for the Humanities at the University is “palpable.” The technological emergence, the push given by the pandemic and the ethical debates that today’s society faces are behind the commitment that the institution has made in recent months so that the Humanities permeate all areas. “To understand human biology you have to understand how the body works and that can only be learned by reading,” exemplifies Giner, who is “devastated” by the latest data from the PISA report. About education, technology and society we spoke with the head of the VIU, with 23,410 students, 5,917 international, and an academic offer of 76 degrees.
What situation is the VIU in?
For some time now we are becoming better known, although it is a project that has been around for many years. Since Grupo Planeta bought it, very intensive work was done to build the university, which without the pandemic may have lasted longer. It is assumed that this methodology works and many students choose us because it is the only way they can progress through higher education. In fact, we are now seeing that many face-to-face universities are already adopting the online format, and it is logical and reasonable.
With this scenario, how do you compete now?
In a face-to-face university you are looking for something different from what you are looking for in an online one. Our student has been looking for an online university and the in-person one still cannot offer the same because we have been operating like this in our classrooms for a long time. There are students of all ages here, from students who have just finished a face-to-face degree, who are 23 and 24 years old, to students who are 60, 70 and 80 years old. Furthermore, we have adapted in everything, in methodology, support, student attention and academic model. We have always been digital and we carry that forward.
He explains that they have been digital since their inception, which dates back to 2008. What university is VIU now as opposed to the one it pretended to be?
I can’t speak a little there because I arrived in 2017, but it was born as a university that intended to start working in the online format and with this methodology then there were only the short courses, the MOOCs, in addition to the UNED, the UOC and little else. He was probably not born with the idea of ??becoming what he has been in a very short time, due to everything he has gone through. Already in 2014 the University became 70% owned by Grupo Planeta and began to build a university in the structural sense of the word. Today we are no longer a single center, we have four faculties and a higher school, there is beginning to be an academic structure and around it, a series of departments that provide support and support to the teacher and the student.
In which specialties does VIU stand out? Where is it stronger?
Stronger or better? They are different things. For example, in the area of ??health, being an online university we will not always be able to address certain degrees but, nevertheless, with that difficulty and that brake, we are doing things very well and we are reaching many people. After the pandemic, titles such as Epidemiology, Psychology, Computer Science or Bioethics are being very strong. In Arts, Humanities and Communication too and it is where we are focusing the DNA of the University, putting the humanist model at the center again. We were in a very dehumanized world and after everything we have experienced with this abrupt technology, we had to stop a little and think.
It is a deep debate that they raise.
Yes. This last year we established a study center because after the pandemic we asked ourselves questions. In this highly advanced digital world, where artificial intelligence answers you to reserve a table in a restaurant, the humanistic part is being left behind. We began to have a reflection and this center aims to be a space for reflection, dissemination and training on the humanities, digitalization, the current world, society and transfer.
Will philosophers and anthropologists be given more value?
We are betting on this. There have to be Big Data analysts and artificial intelligence designers, but maybe next to a man who is designing artificial intelligence there has to be an anthropologist or a sociologist, or a philosopher, right? You have to find the balance. We are very concerned about the Humanities, but also about Literature and about reading with the data that we have just learned from the PISA report. If someone doesn’t understand what they read, how will they understand what they study? It is not new, but we always fall into the same mistakes, but we always have to get up in the same way and walk again.
Problems with reading comprehension occur in incipient educational stages, but do these situations also occur at the University?
Of course, they come here too. What happens is that our student profile is older (the average age is 32 years old), but you do see that the youngest students, compared to the older students, have an important difference. The reading comprehension of a 45-year-old person is not the same as that of a 28-year-old person and you have both of them in the same classroom. Now the results of the PISA report are about 11 and 12 year olds, but the problem will be when these little people arrive at the University at 18 or 20 years old because we will have a recursive change and the University will have to do something because if they arrive with this preparation and With these difficulties, how do we teach them? If something is not done, within five or six years the University will have a problem.
The energy crisis forced universities to make decisions to save costs. You don’t have students, but you do have staff. Are there any measures you will take after the energy crisis? How has inflation affected?
We have had measures to regulate the temperature, for example, but it is true that by not having classrooms our facilities are much smaller and we do not have an environmental impact like the rest of the universities may have, but important decisions have also been made. Regarding inflation, what we have done is adapt to the situation that we have all experienced with scholarship policies or payment partialization so that everyone can fulfill their purpose. We are aware of the situation and we cannot isolate ourselves.
What support do you receive from the administrations? And how do you assess that the left is putting pressure on public aid to private universities?
We are a University where 30% is from the ValER Foundation, belonging to the Generalitat Valenciana and the remaining 70% is from Grupo Planeta. From the moment Grupo Planeta purchases that 70%, the management of this university is purely private and does not receive any other financing.
Only one in four rectors in Spain is a woman and women represent 31% of the management of Spanish private universities. Why is there still this inequality when women are the majority in classrooms?
If I’m honest, I don’t know how to answer them because there are many qualified women, but I’m not at a public university, I can’t tell you, but here we have several women, the rector of the University of Alicante, Amparo Navarro; Rosa Sanchidrian, rector of the European University of Valencia; At the Catholic University there was Asun Gandía and Rosa Visiedo at the CEU. I don’t know why there aren’t more women, but it’s not a question of training or dedication. All in all, the figure you mention is not a bad figure because it shows a trend that I believe will change in a few years because there are more and more women. Notice that right now we have a president of CRUE, Eva Alcón. It is true that we are not where we would like to be, but if you compare it with the growth of recent years, in four years we have perhaps achieved what could be achieved in 15. We have to wait for the next few years, because I predict that the Upcoming candidacies for mandates will be full of women.
Look at the glass half full. Do you see the future of online universities with that optimism?
Yes, I want to think that things are being done well and faster than we think. It is unquestionable that they are part of the ecosystem and that is no longer questioned. It is a format compatible with personal and professional life and will be the option of many people. You make life easier for many people and at the same time you facilitate it, you complement it because you help many people achieve goals that they would not have even considered.
