This inauguration ceremony for the eightieth edition of the University’s summer courses serves to raise awareness of its academic activity throughout the year at the different sites as well as to indicate the main areas of the summer programme in Santander.
During the 2012-13 academic course, UIMP has delivered 42 postgraduate programmes, 18 of which were Master degrees, 7 were PhD programmes and 12 were titles particular to the University. This has been possible thanks to collaboration from the following institutions: the Spanish National Scientific Research Council, the Centre for Constitutional Studies, the Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies, the Cervantes Institute, the Ortega Maranon Foundation, the National Institute for Public Administration, and the Technology Institute at Monterrey University in Georgetown. There have also been 5 postgraduate courses and 1 congress, with 6 doctoral theses being presented.
The courses were delivered by 799 national lecturers and 89 foreign lecturers, reaching a total of 1,409 students.
The University’s summer programme in Santander began on 17thJune with 132 courses. This is a slight increase compared with last year thanks to the patronage of numerous institutions, companies and organisations, despite these times of crisis and austerity.
The programme is oriented towards achieving excellence, as well as the development of talent and innovation, not only from the point of view of the lecturers, but also for the selection of the students with grants who will attend the courses. It must be mentioned that UIMP is also a meeting place for senior researchers, professionals and experts to have the opportunity to exchange progress and experiences in the widest range of areas of knowledge.
We also highlight the fact that this University organises the Ortega y Gasset summer course, in collaboration with the Ministry for Education, Culture and Sport, to bring together the 100 students with the best baccalaureate results and second cycle professional training. They have the privilege of being taught by prestigious researchers and lecturers.
Furthermore, for the fifth consecutive year and as commissioned by our ministry, there are the English language immersion courses held at all our sites, which will include 15,005 students, 1,005 of whom are teachers.
A new addition to this summer’s programme is the inclusion of the “knowledge and values” conference cycle. This will see the examination of current issues by specialists, such as the genome, planes of the future, food and health, poverty, the state of wellbeing, ethics, paperless communication, Spain today, and the relevance of social sciences.
The summer activity is disseminated on the UIMP 2.0 platform, which provides content to the two UIMP TV channels, and on the social networks, which have experienced a notable increase in messages and followers this year. The communication media will use streaming from the University for the first time for live broadcasts of our activity.
In terms of the cultural programme, we are once again collaborating with the city authorities to bring you the Santander International Festival. There will be 65 events, organised in 14 cycles, which include: theatre; dance; meetings with writers, actors and composers; ancient music; artistic exhibitions; and flamenco. Prestigious national and international personalities from the different arts will be present.
An important aim is to maintain the historical leadership of UIMP in the organisation of Spanish courses for foreign students. This year 32 courses have been planned, which represents an increase of more than 14% compared with last year.
Finally, the University expresses its gratitude to all the sponsors, both public and private, which make this academic programme possible. They are:
AMETIC, ASETA, Santander Council, Santander Bank and Santander Universities, BBVA, CES, E-ON, FAO, the Alfonso Martin Escudero Foundation, the Santander Bank Foundation, the Botin Foundation, the Enresa Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, the Telefonica Foundation, the Government of Cantabria, Hispasat, IMSERSO, INAP, the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the Carlos III Institute of Health, the Ministry for Education, Culture and Sport, MSD and UCB Pharma, SA.