The UniversiMÉS programme, a training initiative to bring people with other abilities to university, has graduated its sixth class. Yesterday, UManresa held the ceremony to present diplomas to the 33 participants in the programme, an event that was used as an opportunity to bid farewell to the students of the graduating class. The class that has completed the programme is made up of 13 people from the counties of Bages, Berguedà and Osona. The students who have completed the first course and who will complete the second next year are made up of 20 people from these same counties and, for the first time, people from Anoia and Vallès. The event was attended by representatives of all the organisations and institutions that make UniversiMÉS possible: UManresa – FUB, the Fundació AMPANS, BBVA and the Fundació Antigues Caixes Catalanes.
A path with continuity
The matron of the class of 2023 was Núria Serrat Antolí, doctor in pedagogy, professor, researcher and teacher of the programme, who, in her farewell lecture entitled “Keep learning, always”, spoke of learning and curiosity as an essential part of people’s lives, as a process that when it starts “you don’t know how to finish it”. Serrat explained that the people who have participated in the programme have all the necessary elements to continue learning: motivation, curiosity, looking for the best way of doing things to achieve an objective, paying attention, perseverance and the capacity to conserve and share knowledge. According to the sponsor of the promotion, “the more we know, the more we want to know” and, therefore, ending participation in the programme “is not an end, but a milestone on a path that should lead to new learning”.
Among the highlights of the event was the screening of a music video made by the students of this promotion and the intervention of two people who have participated in the programme: Juanjo Doña Jiménez and Anna Noguera Perarnau. Both expressed their gratitude for the opportunity that UniversiMés has offered them “to learn, meet new people and make the dream of being students of the University come true”.
On behalf of the Fundació Antigues Caixes Catalanes, its president, Jaume Ribera, emphasised that integrating into university life is a way of encouraging interest in learning. Ribera reaffirmed the commitment of the institution he presides to support inclusive education through this programme. The director of BBVA’s Central Catalonia Zone, Robert Figuera Cristòfol, encouraged the first-year students to continue learning, and those finishing the programme urged them to make the most of the knowledge acquired. The president of the AMPANS Foundation, Sebastià Catllà, highlighted the emotion, joy and satisfaction that were experienced during the event and emphasized that the sum of complicities between AMPANS, BBVA, the Fundació Antigues Caixes Catalanes and UManresa – FUB, have allowed to promote a pioneering initiative as necessary as this one that contributes to the inclusion of people with other abilities.
The last of the speeches was given by the Director General of the FUB – UManresa, Valentí Martínez, who encouraged all UniversiMés students to be “ambassadors” of the University, congratulating them for the effort they make to achieve their goals and thanking them for counting on the University to make them a reality, an institution that, for Martínez, “must be inclusive and accessible in order to respond to the demands of society”.
UniversiMÉS beyond Bages
The sixth edition of the programme has once again shown interest in an initiative like this one. Proof of this interest is that the number of counties from which the students come from has been increased. While until now students from Bages, Osona and Berguedà have taken part, the seventh edition of the programme has also had students from Vallès and Anoia. This trend continues in the selection process that began this July to incorporate a new class of twenty students to the new edition of the programme that will begin next autumn.
UniversiMés allows people with intellectual diversity to take part and experience the university world in first person. In addition, it puts them in contact with others who are not from their usual circle, in a new context, and allows them to gain new knowledge.
The training is adapted and includes content related to current affairs in the world and the environment, the economy, culture, artistic creation, health and psychology. The training is carried out in fortnightly 3-hour sessions held at the University, which are complemented with outings related to the topics that have been previously worked on in the classroom.
Sharing the experience
Of the goals for the 2022-2023 academic year, the first of the international activities that have been carried out within the framework of the programme stands out. A delegation of about twenty people from the Institución Universitaria Salazar y Herrera (IUSH) of Colombia formed by Colombian university students with intellectual diversity and four people representing the IUSH and the U INCLUDE programme of the University of Antioquia visited UManresa last November. As well as touring the facilities and getting to know the UManresa university project, the students from Colombia took part in a joint activity with people from the UniversiMÉS programme.
With regard to the next edition, one of the objectives set by the coordinating team is to share the experience with other universities and institutions that are working on similar programmes. They also want to deepen the inclusion of students in university life through contact with undergraduate students. Another of its objectives is to measure the impact of the programme on society and on the group of people with other abilities.
An example of collaboration and addition
UniversiMÉS is a programme resulting from the involvement of the AMPANS foundation, BBVA, the Fundació Antigues Caixes Catalanes and UManresa-FUB.