Read this article in Catalan
Listen to the voice of the largest group at the university to collect their demands and be able to incorporate their vision into the policies that are implemented and affect them. That is what the Student Council of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC) does, which has just turned 30 years old. It is the highest representative body for all undergraduate and master’s students who are studying a program at the university through which they can convey demands, proposals and actions to improve. Currently, the body represents 30,000 students from the 17 UPC schools in the Governing Council, in the University Senate, in the Social Council, in the Student Council of Catalan Universities (CEUCAT), in the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) and in the State University Student Council (CEUNE).
The Student Council Board, renewed last September, is made up of Paula Gutiérrez, who is in charge of University Policy; Álex Cerrato, who coordinates the Secretariat; Guillem Altimiras, Treasury coordinator; Gerard Bosch, coordinator of External Policy, and Esteve Torrents, coordinator of Communication. Through these coordinations, the Council carries out its activity, which ranges from supporting the different student delegations in schools and faculties in the organization of events (which are very active), to participating in the external and internal bodies of the University where They have representation, including the management of Learning Scholarships, a system to support students who, in exchange for their dedication to the Council, can receive financial remuneration that helps them continue their studies.
The application of the LOSU and the effects on students, the conditions of the scholarships or the monitoring of the application of the legislation of the internship agreements are other fronts where the Student Council has a lot to say and is studying to send its opinion. voice to the relevant bodies.
These are just a few examples, because many and diverse topics arise. Recently, in one of the Plenary sessions, student concerns arose, such as the need to take care in teaching the first years, the value of ethics that must be transferred to the group or the need to increase the presence of women in the degrees and masters from the UPC. In this last area, the Council has already made specific proposals to get involved in the activities that the University carries out to promote technological vocations among girls. For example, they have proposed that professionals in technological fields who participate in the Here STEAM UPC program, designed to bring technological careers closer to girls through schools, can be accompanied by students so that the generational gap is smaller.
Gutiérrez, Altimiras, Cerrato, Bosch and Torrens do this work voluntarily and are convinced that it is necessary and important. Although it takes away their hours of study in demanding careers, they believe that participation brings them more than it takes them. “I am interested in politics and the university, it is like a town with a mini-mayor and mini-aldermen who want to make it better,” says Bosch. Altimiras also likes this political aspect of being part of the group that is interested in university life outside the classroom. “Going to class is very good, but we need other points of view of the university,” he says. Cerrato does not have such a political vocation, but he is satisfied with participating in the Council, as well as Paula Gutiérrez, who had already experienced student representation at the institute. “My motivation is that students can have a better experience at the university,” says Gutiérrez, who sees it as a good way “to experience university life.”
The vice-rector for Teaching and Students, Anna Mujal, from her position, deals precisely with issues related to the student body. She meets regularly with the Council’s Coordination Board, made up of the five students elected by the Plenary Session of this representative body. In these meetings, which are complemented by more informal and more frequent communications, the student representatives present the requests and try to resolve them in an agile manner. “I really value that the students are part of a representative body like this, because I think it complements their training, it allows them to see the university from other perspectives, build collectively and train.” Likewise, she states: “the institutional relationship of the University with the Student Council is very important”, and explains that, without going any further, they had recently encountered difficulties in organizing the outdoor activities proposed by the university students. From these meetings, the situation is jointly analyzed, the bottleneck is detected and an alternative is worked on to overcome it.
University life, which was relatively lost as a result of the COVID pandemic, is one of the challenges shared between the Board of Directors and the Student Council. Mujal, who had been part of the Council when she was a student, defends that the student body is key to achieving this. “We cannot make policies without taking their opinion into account,” adds the vice-rector, “we may have ideas, but they know the current languages ??and communication codes to encourage university life.” The Council is also behind and that is why it is aware of everything that the student delegations and the schools and faculties do to have active campuses. “That the UPC has different campuses is also a challenge,” says Gutiérrez, “but we want the student body to be able to live life at the university with the university.”
To commemorate this 30th anniversary of the Student Council, an event has been organized on April 19, in the assembly hall of the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), in which they will relive some of the milestones it has achieved this representative body throughout its journey, such as the creation of student delegations, the adaptation to the Bologna Plan and the LOU, or the definition of the lilac points protocol on campuses. Each of these milestones will be represented with a piece that will form part of a puzzle of the Consell’s 30th anniversary logo, printed in 3D format by the FABLab of the Higher School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT). There will also be recognition of the work of the former coordinators who have represented the Council during these years and there will be witnesses who will make the experience relive. The vice-rector for Teaching and Students, Anna Mujal, and the director of the ETSEIB, Enric Fossas, will also participate in the event.
