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MANAGING THE UNIVERSITY OF VALLADOLID.
CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE
© Javier Pajares, Adolfo Lopez-Paredes
Grupo InSiSoc, University of Valladolid (Valladolid, Spain)
E-mail: pajares@eis.uva.es
Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main challenges that the University of Valladolid (UVa) will face in the future, and the role of Information and Communication Technologies in order to succeed these challenges.
After seven centuries of history involved in academic activities, our university has to produce high quality research, and to design study programs attractive enough to encourage foreign students to come to Valladolid. In the knowledge economy, our university should be the driving force of the economic growth of the Region of Castile and Leon; efficient management systems are an initial condition to succeed.
1. Introduction
European Universities are one of the oldest institutions all over the world. Some of them started up during the Middle Age, and are older that any other private firm. This survival record implies a high level of long term efficiency. This means that universities have been able to adapt, at its own speed and inertia, to the socioeconomic and political changes, beyond short term fashions and movements. This long term intelligence also implies that universities have been able to take advantage from new philosophies, technologies and ways of organisation. In the beginning of the XXI Century, universities face new exciting challenges for the future: from teaching to high quality research, from knowledge storage to fuel drivers of economic growth. But fortunately, universities also can take advantage from the possibilities offered by the new technologies.
In this paper we discuss the challenges faced by the University of Valladolid and we will suggest how the Information and Communication Technologies might help to succeed in those attempt. It is easier to understand the present features of the university if we take into account its seven centuries of history, and its location, in the heart of the Region of Castile and Leon. For this reason, in section 1, we will remind the most relevant historical facts played by our university, and the main features of Castile and Leon, a region located in the north central area of Spain. We also speak about Valladolid, the middle-sized city where the university is located.
In section 2, we will explain the main features of the organisation and management of the university, playing special attention to the matrix structure involving faculties and departments. Later, in section 3 we will show how information and communication technologies are used in order to manage the university. We will review how IT's also help the academic staff in their teaching and researching activities.
In section 4, we will consider the main future challenges for the UVa, and we will suggest how information technologies are helping nowadays and will help us in the next years to deal with these challenges. We will finish with the main conclusions of our dissertation.
2. History and Location
It is impossible to understand the problems and challenges faced by the University of Valladolid (UVa) without understanding its seven centuries of history, and its location, in the middle of the Region of Castile and Leon.
2.1. History
The University of Valladolid is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Its origin is closely related to the General Studio of Palencia, and it emerged, as other medieval universities did, as a result of both urban growth and predilection of the monarchs (UVa, 2006).
Although there is still some discussion among expert historians, this university is probably the oldest one in Spain. What is beyond doubt is that the University of Valladolid was a very well organised university in the late XIII Century: it has been properly documented that in 1293, King Sancho IV created the General Studio in Alcala, using the model studio established before in Valladolid.
The Studio in Valladolid was initially involved in basic disciplines as Grammar, Arithmetic, Latin and Holy Scriptures. In 1347, Pope Clement IV granted the University the licentia ubique do-cenci, during the reign of Alphonso XI of Leon and Castile. But in 1417, Pope Martin V granted the right to teach Theology, conferring on the university the highest academic status, completing the range of disciplines that were already been taught in Valladolid: Law, Canons, Medicine and Arts.
The University of Valladolid was declared one of the Major Universities of the Kingdom in the XVI Century, together with the Universities of Salamanca and Alcala. Both the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine became widely significant. In 1589, King Philip II, who was born in Valladolid, granted the Privilege of Conservatoria, that is, the recognition of institutional plenitude, complete jurisdiction, and explicit recognition of autonomy.
Thanks to the efforts and tenacity of several generations of lectures, researchers and governing bodies, the University of Valladolid has grown up with the creation of new faculties and schools, breathing new life into the teaching and research of this age-old institution, and making it one of the most prominent centres of higher education in Spain.
Nowadays, the University of Valladolid is involved in teaching and researching activities in almost all the fields of knowledge: economics, science, law, arts, engineering, education, medicine, architecture, etc.. The University has campuses not only in the city of Valladolid, but in Soria, Segovia and Palencia as well, all of them smaller cities within the Autonomous Region of Castile and Leon.
As a consequence of its history and of its location in the heart of the region of Castile and Leon, the University of Valladolid is strongly committed with the promotion and teaching of the Spanish Language. Every year, students around the world come to Valladolid to improve their Spanish language skills.
2.2. The Autonomous Region of Castile and Leon
Spain is a country with around 44 million inhabitants, which is made up with 17 autonomous regions (see figure 1). Each of these autonomous regions has its own Regional Parliament and Government. In Spain, regional institutions are responsible for the regional economy, the development of regional industry, state regulations, public health services and, very important for our purposes, education, both university and non university education. In the other side, the Spanish general institutions are responsible for coordination between autonomous regions, army, police and foreign office.
The Autonomous region of Castile and Leon is located in the north-central side of Spain (figure 1). It is the biggest one in terms of surface (94223 squared kilometres), but its populations is only around 2.5 million inhabitants. This means that Castile and Leon takes up the 18 % of the Spanish surface, but only represents the 5 % of its population. Indeed, both population and economic activity is concentrated around the line Valladolid-Palencia-Burgos, with an important cluster of firms related to the
automobile industry as Renault, Michelin, Grupo Antolfn Irausa, etc.. (Pedrosa et al, 2003). Other important industries are related to food and agriculture, and wine production.
However, despite of the low figures of population, Castile and Leon has four public universities, that is, mainly financed by the Autonomous Government (Valladolid, Salamanca, Burgos and Leon) and two private universities (Miguel de Cervantes in Valladolid, and the SEK in Segovia).
Until year 2004, the region of Castile of Leon was objective one region within the European Union. However, after the last enlargement of the Union, the region is no more objective one. Anyway, both the University of Valladolid and the other universities in the region are concerned with the economic development of their “area of influence”.
Valladolid is the main city in Castile and Leon: both the Regional Government and the Parliament are in Valladolid. It is a middle-sized city in Spain, with a population of around 400000 inhabitants. The main activities are related to the automobile industry (important factories of Renault and Michelin), administrative staff of the autonomous institutions, wine production and, of course, the University. Indeed, the city of Valladolid exhibits a nice student atmosphere, with both local and foreign students: cultural activities, and hundreds of pubs where young people stay until late, even in the middle of the week. Valladolid allows students to find a nice trade off between hard work and amusement.
Nowadays, the University of Valladolid has around 30000 students, 1400 of them postgraduate. Around 2500 men and women are its academic and research staff. It is a general purpose university; this means that there are programs concerning all the areas of knowledge: sciences, laws, medicine, engineering, economics, education, languages, philosophy, etc. Managing an organisation of this size demands efficient administrative practices, good strategic planning and, of course, efficient and powerful information technologies.
The UVa is mainly financed by Regional Government funds (around 67 %), whereas students fees only represent the 14 % of the total needs of funds. The remaining quantity comes, in small proportions, from Central Government, Municipalities, European Union, Research Contracts, Students Guest Homes, etc. Research is mainly funded by means Research Projects. Research Groups and De-
Fig. 1. Spain (left side) and the Autonomous Region of Castile and Leon
2.3. The City of Valladolid
3. Managing the University of Valladolid
partments apply for different grant calls issued by the European Union (R&D frameworks), General Government and Regional Governments.
Like all Spanish universities, the UVa has a democratic structure. Every four years, there are elections in order to appoint the Rector and the Parliament (Claustro). All the university community groups have the right to vote: professors, teaching staff, administrative staff, researchers, students, etc. However the power of vote depends on the group the elector belongs to. Once the Rector has been elected, he/she appoints the Vice-Rectors responsible for the different areas: Planning and Economic Affairs, Institutional Relations, Study Programs Organisation, Research, etc. Each of these areas is endowed with the appropriate expert administrative staff. Usually, they are permanent member staff in the university, as they have to pass some public competitive examination.
The University of Valladolid has a matrix organisation involving Faculties and Departments (see figure 2). Each Faculty offers different study programs. For instance, in the Faculty of Engineering (Escuela de Ingenieros) there are programs on Industrial Engineering, Industrial Organisation Engineering and Automatics Engineering. The Faculty of Economics offers programs in General Economics, Marketing and Business Administration.
Departments are the main cell of the university for both teaching and researching activities. Departments are related to areas of knowledge (mathematics, business and economics, physics, etc.) whereas faculties are related to study programs. This means that every department is made up of several sections, each of them teaching in one faculty. For instance, in figure 2, the Department of Business and Economics (B&E) has sections in the Faculties of Engineering, Economics and Computer Sciences, whereas the Department of Microbiology is made up of the sections of the Faculties of Medicine and Biology.
Faculties
partments Engineering Economics Computer science Medicine Sciences Biology
B & E
Maths llll
e Q Micro biology llll llll
Physics llll ll 1 l llll
Fig. 2. Matrix Organisation: Faculties and Departments
Each Faculty has its institutional structure and its administrative staff. Every four years the Dean of the Faculty and the Faculty Council are elected by the faculty community: students, administrative staff, teachers, researchers, professors, etc. In the same way, there are elections to appoint the Director and the Secretary of each department. And the departments are also endowed with permanent administrative staff who supports the day to day management related to research and teaching.
4. Information Technologies in the UVa
In order to manage the complex organisation described above, it is necessary to be supported by efficient information technology systems. Staff engaged in IT activities is distributed around all the organisational structure explained earlier in this paper.
Thus, there is a general IT Department which gives general service to all the faculties and departments. But there are also staff members engaged in IT activities in the Faculties and, usually, in most of the Departments. The general IT Department is responsible for the maintenance of the Web page of the university, the development and maintenance of “in-house” software related with university management, the university server, and the university network.
All the Faculties and a high proportion of departments have their own web site, and they are responsible of its development and maintenance. Furthermore, some departments have also their local network.
The general IT Department has developed software for managing study programs and research projects, and has developed a web site which gives attractive information to students about study programs, faculties, extra-academic activities, etc. On the other side, some research groups have developed their own software for different purposes, usually financed by means of grants issued by public institutions.
4.1. The UVa's Web site
Beyond the purpose of general information, the UVa's web site gives support to teaching and researching activities, as both students and teaching staff can share information by means of the internet. In figure 3, we show the home page of the UVa's web (www.uva.es). We explain now some of the main purposes of the web site.
• Marketing. The web site gives attractive information (both in Spanish and English) about the faculties and study programs available in the university: programs, courses, lectures, extra-academic activities, and requirements to study a particular program. Also we can find a welcome talk by the Rector and a little bit of history about the university and the city of Valladolid.
Fig. З. Main web page of the university
• Information: Links to the web pages of different departments and faculties. Links to the Communication Press Office, which gives daily information about news related to the University and news published in the news papers, TV, radio, etc. It is also possible to search e-mails, and telephone numbers of all the members of the university community.
• Administrative activities. Students can download documents they have to fulfil in order to join courses and programs. Also teaching and researching staff can find information about administrative procedures, downloading the required
• Managing study programs. The web site also allows both students and teachers to share information, so that it is easier to manage study programs. In particular, students can read all the relevant information related to the different courses, like the scheduling of subjects, their contents, how and when the students will be evaluated, tutorial sessions, etc. It is also possible to download lectures and other documents that the professor of the subject wants the students to read.
4.2 The Teacher's workdesk
It is a software developed by the University of Valladolid that allows academic staff to manage their day-to-day most common teaching and administrative activities. It is possible to access to the software by means of internet. Indeed, it is a set of software systems, each one with its own purposes.
• Information about study programs. By means of the teachers workdesk, the teacher can introduce all the information about study programs we explained in the previous section: contents of subjects, documents, lectures, etc.
• Results of students pulls. Every year, students fulfil pulls about the quality of programs, contents, teaching methodology, etc. The results of these pulls can be read by the teacher responsible of the subject. In this way, academic staff are able to receive feedback from their students.
• Statistics. The professor responsible for a subject can download information about the number of students, percentage of students who passed the examinations, comparing this figures with average figures in the faculty and in the whole university.
• The Sigma Software. Sigma is a new software developed by the University of Valladolid, which help the teaching staff to manage students groups, lists and the marks got in examinations. Every teacher has only access to the data of the students attending to his/her subjects, and he/she can introduce the marks and any other relevant information for the course (see figure 4).
Fig. 4. General view of Sigma software
• Curriculum Vitae updating. In the University of Valladolid, the researching activities of the academic staff are evaluated every year. For this reason, all the researches have to update a database with their books, papers, research projects and contracts, conferences, etc.
• Links to regulations concerning research projects; download documents to fulfil in research projects, etc.
4.3. Sorolla
Sorolla is the main software used by administrative staff in their day-to-day activities. It allows to make accounting, to register incomes and expenses related to departments, research groups, faculties, research projects, etc.
4.4. Collaborative Networks
This is a new software developed within the Department of Organization de Empresas y CIM, in the Faculty of Computer Science, within the team leaded by Prof. Jose Manuel Perez Rios. The soft-
ware allows researchers all over the world to build up collaborative research networks. The use of the system is free (at least at the moment) for researching and teaching purposes. Main web page is www.rede sdec olaboracion.org.
First, a researcher (who will be the leader of the new net) has to register and to ask the system manager for a collaborative net concerning a specific research topic. If the application is accepted, the new net is created, and new researchers can join the specific net whenever the leader of the net accepts them. (see figure 5. for some relevant screens).
Fig. 5. Collaboration Networks main screens
The system has a file manager, where the members can load and download files. It is possible to know who has read or not a particular document. There is a chat, so members could communicate on line, changing information about a particular research topic. The system also offers e-mail address, or the possibility to link your own e-mail address with the net. Researcher also can use a “pocket diary” in order to plan futures activities. It is also possible to share the diary with the other members of the net, so that they could know what you are doing in some date, or whether is possible to arrange a meeting with you.
4.5. Buscador Colon (Columbus Searcher)
Buscador Color is a database that allows people around the world to search for postgraduate programs in Spain. It was developed within the Dept. of Organization de Empresas y CIM. Nowadays, it has been appointed as Official Searcher of the Spanish Foreign Office. This means that, everyday, Buscador Colon is used by hundreds of students looking for grants from the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation.
4.6. Teaching purpose software
Beyond the systems explained above, a lot of departments and research groups have developed their own software to assist teaching. For example, the members of the research group InSiSoc (Social Systems Engineering) have developed MACROSOLVE, a software that allows students to learn macro-economics; CADMARK, which allows the user to design and develop marketing plans (Hernandez, del Olmo and Garcia, 1994); or DIS_EST, for strategic management and economic and financial analysis of firms.
Furthermore, agent based models created for researching purposes, have been adapted to teaching purposes. Thus, students can learn more about the evolution of industries, financial markets, auctions, natural resources management, etc. (see Pajares, Hernandez and Lopez. (2004) for a deeper description).
5. Challenges for the future and the role of IT
The University of Valladolid faces the beginning of the XXI Century with hope and optimism. Of course, the complexity of today demands to be alert to new threats and, of course, new opportunities. Some of the threats come from socioeconomic issues, like the decreasing number of students, because of the low birth rate in Spain. At the same time, the number of new universities has increased, so competition becomes higher and higher. At the same time, the Bolognia Agreement implies a change in study programs to accommodate the old ones to the European High Education Area.
In order to attract students, the University of Valladolid should be able to design new attractive study programs, taking into account the tradition of our university in several areas of knowledge (law, languages, ...) and the role socioeconomic needs of our region (engineering and technical studies).
5.1. The Spanish language in Valladolid
Thanks to its location in the heart of Castile and Leon, Spanish language might be one of the most important strengths for the University of Valladolid. Indeed, the provinces of Valladolid, Burgos, Palencia and Salamanca are supposed to be the places where it is possible to find the best Spanish pronunciation. Miguel de Cervantes lived and died in Valladolid, and nowadays, widely recognised academics in language learning belong to our university.
In our understanding, our university is attractive for different kinds of foreign students. First, students who want to learn Spanish language; second, foreign students with basic or intermediate knowledge of Spanish who come to Valladolid to study any program (different than Spanish language) in order to improve their Spanish skills. And in third place, students from Latin America who want to study programs (usually postgraduate) in Spain. Nowadays, the city of Valladolid has a very nice international student atmosphere. Beyond study programs, the city offers a lot of cultural activities like museums, theatre, sports, etc., and a lot of bars and pubs, allowing a young people to get a good trade off between fun and learning.
Information Technologies can be extremely useful to exploit the “economic value associated to the Spanish language”. First, it will be necessary to advertise and promote systems like the Buscador Colon (section 3.5). By means of this kind of software, thousands of students around the world access to information about postgraduate programs in Spain. Of course, all the postgraduate courses of the UVa are included in Colon. It also should be useful to extend the database to undergraduate programs.
The web page of the University should be the main instrument for advertising and marketing. It should not only include information about study programs, but data about Students Guest Houses, cultural activities, etc.
Distance learning has become a promising way of teaching, although open discussions still take place concerning quality. Anyway, information technologies endow us with an innovative and powerful way of teaching. It depends on us how to use it, but the possibilities are there. In our understanding, web based distance learning could be interesting whenever used as a complement (partial distance learning) to lectures and team work. For instance, foreign students could stay one semester in the university and other semester at their own country, using web based learning.
5.2. Good quality of research
Research is a key issue for a modern university. The University of Valladolid has successfully improved its figures in Research and Development during the last twenty years. IT in general, and systems like Collaborative Nets help researchers to communicate among them and to share information. In some way, Collaborative Nets allow distributed work, so it is possible to manage complex R&D projects with partners from different research groups.
Easy access to the most relevant scientific journals is essential for good research. For this reason, it is also important to use the web based systems offered by the most important scientific publishers.
5.3. The University as driving force of the economic development of Castile and Leon
During the Middle Age, storing knowledge was the main purpose of the European universities. Monks wrote and translated classic and religious books, so knowledge could overcome their generations. During the Renaissance, teaching became also important, so universities not only were engaged in knowledge storage but in knowledge transmission as well.
More recently, universities went a step forward: it was also important to discover and create new knowledge; by means of research, universities became the driving force of technology development.
But nowadays, universities are required to perform an additional task: to be the driving force of the economic growth of the region where they are located. In a knowledge based economy, we cannot be satisfied with storage, teaching and creation of knowledge, but we should use this knowledge to help local firms, regional governments, etc. to their purposes.
For this reason, a modern university has to combine high level basic research with applied research oriented to help the development of local firms. Furthermore, research groups should be encouraged to start up spin offs firms, using the results of their research to create employment and new business.
Usually, our universities are criticized because they live far away from the needs of mediumsized firms. But also it is true that sometimes, firms do not know what kind of research the nearest university is involved in, and how this research (and this knowledge) could help them to improve their manufacturing systems and their organisation.
Thus, beyond meetings and conferences, it should be useful to developed web sites where both entrepreneurs and scientists could express their research needs and their specialities, respectively.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, we have tried to build a bridge between the seven centuries of history, and the present challenges faced by the University of Valladolid. We have also realised that Information Technologies are one of the most important keys in order to success. By means of IT, our university will be able to attract new students, both Spanish and foreign students who will come to Valladolid to improve their Spanish language skills. IT also will help our university to translate knowledge into economic growth, connecting the needs of researchers and entrepreneurs.
The ancient universities have remained alife for centuries because they have been able to adapt to socioeconomic and political changes, and because they have been clever enough to recognise and take advantage from new opportunities. Probably, IT's offer the most promising opportunities for teaching and research in the XXI Century, and we have no doubt that the University of Valladolid will take advantage of this fact.
References
1. Hernandez, C., del Olmo, R. and Garcia, J. (1994). El plan de Marketing Estrategico. Gestion 2000. Barcelona.
2. Pajares, J., Hernandez, C. and Lopez-Paredes (2004). “Modelling learning and R&D in innovative environments”. Special Issue «Evolutionary Economics and Social Simulation» . Journal for Artificial Societies and Social Simulation JASSS. February 2004.
3. Pedrosa et al, (2003). Investigation, desarrollo e innovation en Castilla y Leon. Informe del Consejo Economico y Social de Castilla y Leon.
4. UVa (2006). The University of Valladolid. A model University since the 13th Century. http://www.universityofvalladolid.uva.es/past/index.html. September, 2006.
Поступила в редакцию 17 октября 2006 г.
