The event, held at La Salle Campus Barcelona and at the Beauvais campus of UniLaSalle France, reflected on the future of university education in the world and its need to adapt to the reality of the current global context
By La Salle BCN
Last week, the network of La Salle universities — the International Association La Salle Universities (IALU) — held the XIII Encuentro, the triennial meeting in which the organization’s plan of action for the coming years is discussed and reflections are made on the current moment of university education in the world. More than a hundred representatives of the 64 universities from around the world that are currently associated with the IALU worked with this objective, between November 7 and 12, 2022, in the two venues that hosted the XIII Encuentro: the Beauvais campus of UniLaSalle France and La Salle Campus Barcelona.
Despite its three-year nature, due to the pandemic, four years had passed since the previous Encuentro held in Mexico in 2018, since which 36 new rectors and presidents have joined the IALU universities. On this occasion, the XIII Encuentro had the orientations of the recent General Chapter of La Salle and its International Mission Assembly. In addition, the event was attended by Brother Armin Luistro, Superior General of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and Brother Carlos Gómez, Vicar General of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
IALU Action Plan 2025
The motto of the event is the best synthesis of its objective: Transforming the future together. With the XIII Encuentro, IALU has reinforced its position as one of the university networks with the greatest weight and largest volume of students in the world, currently 64 universities worldwide and more than 300,000 students. Its vision is “to be anefficient university network that, in collaboration with other actors, promotes evangelization and comprehensive education for social responsibility and critical citizenship committed to the social, economic and sustainable development of its territories and the world through research and the innovation”. From this vision several working documents were derived that will mark the future of the network, and among which its 2025 Action Plan for the next three years stands out.
The event held its first three days in Beauvais, France, and the last three in Barcelona, on the La Salle-URL campus. It was here that the initiatives for the IALU Action Plan 2025 were worked on, which incorporates the network’s strategies to promote social innovation, accessible quality education and the training of qualified and committed agents of transformation. The representatives of the organization thought together about the role of the network as a trainer of people who help transform society. Also, they committed to being promoters of the democratization of knowledge for a more inclusive and sustainable future.
Appointment of the members of the new Board of the IALU
On the other hand, the XIII Encuentro of the IALU served to appoint the members of the new Board of the IALU, which will include the General Director of La Salle Campus Barcelona, Josep M. Santos. In this new Board, the IALU Europe and Francophone Africa Region proposed Josep M. Santos as Director of the region, who was later unanimously approved at the IALU General Assembly.
The rest of the members of the new Board of the IALU are Brother Andrés Govela, President of the IALU; David Livingston, Vice President of the IALU; Daniel Allen, Board Member and Director of the North America, Anglophone Africa and Bethlehem Region; Lourdes Lavaniegos, Board member and Director of the Mexico Region; Brother Manuel Orozco, Board member and Director of the Region of Central and South America; and Brother Kenneth Martinez, Board member and director of the Asia Region. In addition, it was approved that the XIV Encuentro, to be held in 2025, will be hosted by one of the IALU universities in Asia.
Jesús Félix Martínez, Director of the Network of Educational Works at La Salle Arlep: “It has been a Lasallian community experience in which the word ‘Encuentro’ has acquired its deepest meaning: welcome, fraternity, shared reflection, a hopeful look to the future, the commitment of all those who have made it possible. We have identified the challenges and also the strength of facing them together.”
Josep Canal, Presidente of the FUNITEC Board of Trustees and Auxiliar Visitor of La Salle Arlep: “We have met, we have reflected and we have shared. Now it’s turn to transform our reality together, starting with our hearts, with our interior”.
More information:
International Association La Salle Universities (IALU)
https://ialu.org/
UniLaSalle – Beauvais
https://www.unilasalle.fr/
La Salle Campus Barcelona
https://www.salleurl.edu/