UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA

description of organisation

The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) is a public university, at the service of society, which provides the service of higher education through teaching, research, study, cultural and university projection, exercising its daily activity of economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way.

Universities must respond in a committed way to three central mandates: training, research and contribution to the environment, also called the third mission (transfer, service, leadership, etc.). The UPV / EHU has these three missions reflected in its Statutes and must direct its policies to comply with them in a responsible and pertinent manner with the ultimate aim of contributing efficiently to the construction and transformation of society.

In the reality that surrounds us, we find strikingly opposed perspectives and situations. On the one hand, we share a vision of exponential growth of knowledge and applications to social, economic and cultural life, seasoned with well-being and concentration of wealth and, on the other, we live with serious human rights violations such as situations of poverty, inequality, usurpation of natural and cultural wealth, violence against women and minorities, or humanitarian and ecological crisis. The relationships that human beings establish between ourselves and with nature need to be reconsidered and redirected to alleviate the strong human and ecological suffering that we produce with our current ways of life. These serious contradictions, with which we live every day, need committed and co-responsible responses, and the University must participate directly in their analysis and resolution.

The UPV / EHU, like many other organizations, finds in the SDGs a framework in which it can locate a large number of the programs that it is currently developing. Thus, certain degrees and research, the promotion of a culture of human rights, equality policies between men and women, development cooperation, environmental management or joint work with third sector organizations are proof that the SDGs do not they are alien to who we are or what we do. However, staying there would not be enough. In fact, it is not enough as problems persist. Turning the SDGs into a strategy to legitimize what is already being done cannot be our option, it is not our option.

The UPV / EHU, in its commitment to social commitment and sustainability, has developed the “EHUagenda 2030, For sustainable development”. This document is the product of this global and local reflection, a roadmap that seeks to align the work of the University with the great challenges of the planet, making possible a verifiable and pragmatic contribution, and that affects three areas: inclusion, equality and sustainability. The purposes it pursues are:

- Integrate in a coherent way the particular and local efforts that students, faculty, research staff, and technical and administrative staff make around the SDGs and appropriate the agenda in a common and interconnected endeavor that permeates all University activity .

- Design and develop teaching-learning, equality, inclusion and environmental management policies through a common integrated logic, with recognizable and measurable goals in the medium-long term (2019-2025 and 2025-2030).

- Define a panel of Sustainable Development indicators of the UPV / EHU, so that the achievements can be measured, monitored and communicated in a transparent way.

- Establish a policy of close alliances with the environment to intensify co-responsibility with the SDGs.

In addition, in its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, which establishes the priorities of the UPV / EHU for the four years in which it will be in force, it establishes, among other objectives:

- Convert the university into an institution that promotes sustainable development, inclusion and social commitment: fostering University-social agents joint work through expanded learning communities around challenges related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and strengthening programs and calls to support groups with specific needs (refugees, groups in situations of social, economic, cultural vulnerability, etc.)

- Encourage university values, collaboration, equality, critical thinking, creativity and social commitment in students, contributing to their comprehensive training as citizens.