Challenges for the Future of Universities analysed during the visit of the President of SACRU to UCP
On July 11, the Universidade Católica Portuguesa received the visit of the rector of the Australian Catholic University (ACU), Zlatko Skrbis, also president of SACRU - Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities, and Abid Khan, vice-rector of ACU, with the aim of strengthening institutional relations, promoting debate on the future.
The meeting between the representatives of the two universities allowed to address issues relevant to the two academies, as well as to SACRU, the alliance to which these universities belong, and the delegation was received by the President of Católica, Isabel Capeloa Gil, the Vice-Rector Peter Hanenberg and the Director of Global Engagement, Francisco Mendes Palma.
During the meetings that marked this visit, the relevance of maintaining a global positioning of the universities was shared, by ensuring the provision of a service of excellence to the entire academic community and the ecosystems that surround us, and the importance of promoting SACRU as a strategic global alliance for the partners was emphasised.
The relationship with the various stakeholders, carried out in the broad portfolio of scientific areas, through applied research and knowledge transfer, Community Engagement and Service Learning are also practices that these partners stimulate transversally.
Regarding entrepreneurship, at all levels of the academy, it was considered essential to continue to energise it, so that it increasingly affirms itself in everyone's DNA and thus makes a positive difference in university dynamics: students, professors/researchers and employees.
The importance of global cooperation networks, SACRU being a good example, was another dimension defended, in order to ensure a sharing and knowledge of the various world realities, highlighting the need to continue stimulating university exchanges, both bilaterally and in the context of SACRU.
In addition to the various meetings between the two delegations, the vice-rectors of Universidade Católica, Margarida Mano, Miguel Athayde Marques and Fernando Ferreira Pinto, also joined the meeting.
The two representatives of the Catholic University of Australia and the President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, as partners of SACRU, will participate on July 13 and 14 in the scientific colloquium, "The Future of Catholic Universities in the AI Age", to be held at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, which will include a conference by Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and an intervention by William Hasselberger, professor at the Institute of Political Studies, entitled "Generative AI, Character Formation, and the Aims of the University".
The vice-rectors of Católica, Isabel Vasconcelos and Peter Hanenberg, and the professors Marília dos Santos Lopes and Henrique Antunes will also participate in this event.
The Scientific Colloquium 2023 aims to provide a platform for reflection on the role of SACRU Universities in meeting the challenges of the AI era and to involve a large number of members of the SACRU academic communities, including the younger generation of researchers.
The initiative will involve different disciplines in the debate on the impact of AI on universities, after which a paper will be written with a position on the topic.