The rector of the University of Alcalá opens the academic year with "optimism" and warns that "special efforts" will be needed

The University of Alcalá (UAH) today celebrated the opening ceremony of the new academic year, which, on this occasion, resumed its traditional format, modified in recent years due to the pandemic.

The rector of the UAH, José Vicente Saz, wanted to leave in his speech a message of "optimism" for the start of this new academic year. "The situation we are facing is not an easy one and, most likely, we will have to make special efforts and work hard to meet our goals." He has alluded to the pandemic, to the impact in Spain at the beginning of 2020, "whose end we have not finished seeing", although he has assured that "we have been able to adapt to it and give an adequate response to the problems it has raised for us" . In this sense, he was "fully convinced that, with the effort and enthusiasm of the entire university community, all working together in the same direction, we will be able to overcome all adversity and fulfill our social responsibilities."

The University of Alcalá begins this academic year with nearly 28,000 students enrolled in Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies, more than 2,000 teachers and researchers and more than 800 members of the Administration and Services Staff. It must be remembered that the academic institution has a campus in Guadalajara.

The official act began with the formation, in the Plaza de los Santos Niños in Alcalá de Henares, of the academic delegation, made up of nearly a hundred members of the university community, dressed in academic dress.

Then, and after a brief act in the Magistral Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares, which has had the musical intervention of EVUAH Ensemble Vocal, the delegation has carried out its traditional route to the Rectorate, recalling what the bachelors did in their first day of class, more than 500 years ago, passing through the streets of the historic center of the city until reaching the University.

Already in the Auditorium of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, the ceremony began with the reading of the summary of the Annual Report for the 2021-2022 academic year, by the general secretary of the university. Subsequently, Antonio Alvar, professor of Latin Philology at the UAH, gave the inaugural conference entitled 'Antonio de Nebrija, grammarian', as part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the death of the humanist.

After the presentation, the new full professors and professors incorporated into the Senate in the last year were sworn in, as well as the delivery of the XVII Prize of the Social Council for University-Society Knowledge Transfer, granted to Professor Francisco Javier Rodríguez, from the GEISER Research Group, for the work "Electronic engineering for a safe and sustainable energy future" (Health Sciences, Experimental and Technical Branches category); and to professors Isabel Cano and Miguel Rodríguez, for the work 'The protection of the fundamental right of religious freedom in the workplace' (Humanities and Social and Legal Sciences category).

Likewise, the UAH Honorary Silver Medals were awarded to the Rodolfo Benito Samaniego Foundation; Amparo Valcarce, Secretary of State for Defense; Mariano Jabonero, secretary general of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI); Professor Emeritus Santiago García Echevarría, and Jesús La Roda, member of the Administration and Services Staff group of the UAH.