Accessibility and Sustainability

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in the face of rising requests on behalf of an increasingly demanding society in terms of responding to the crisis of sustainability, transparency, employability and efficiency, aims to make a more efficient use of public resources and accountability. The UAB is aware that today's crisis must be responded to, since there is an important imbalance between the technical progress achieved and the knowledge on how best to manage it, which requires new ideas and highlights the importance of philosophical and ethical aspects.
 
There is the need for the university to be not only a laboratory of ideas, but also a reference institution in the promotion of critical thinking and the avant-garde of social justice. In addition, in the current context, students are moved and make decisions guided by values of impact on society, environmental sustainability and gender equality.
 
For all these reasons, as a starting point, the objectives the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona poses to overcome current accessibility and sustainability challenges by 2030 are:
 
1. To reinforce the governance model by increasing autonomy associated with accountability; to gain response capacity and have impact on the environment.
Within this objective, the following actions are proposed:

1. To redefine governance structures in order to move towards a system which, while maintaining a democratic spirit, strengthens the executive capacity of the Governing Council, simplifying decision-making processes.
2. To achieve more professionalisation of the academic management positions, to move towards more efficient and professional management, based on management by objectives (MBO) and the forecast of needs, with acceptance of individual responsibilities.
3. To rethink the way the Senate works in order to make the most of the senate members' meetings.
4. To move towards more effective and decisive capacity in the decision processes, always with transparency and accountability.
5. To gain university autonomy in matters of recruitment, personnel management and student selection, based on the establishment of agreements by objectives with the Administration.
6. To increase the participation of external people in the governance of the University.

 
2. To evolve towards a new, more decentralised, organisational structure, based on an increase in the autonomy of the different units and good accountability.
Within this objective, the following actions are proposed:

1. To redefine the internal organisation, the operation and role of centres, departments and other structures, considering the possibility of creating intermediate structures.
2. To increase the role of the centres in the academic programming and the monitoring and evaluation of teaching, and expand their functions in the management of teaching staff.
3. To provide the centres with the necessary resources so that they can act with more management autonomy, with the consequent accountability.
4. To advance in the achievement of more interdisciplinary departments.
5. To establish a programme contract system with the different centres and services to favour the decentralisation of the University and autonomy in management.

 
3. To implement a suitable urban development model, within the framework of sustainable development of public spaces, services, energy management and campus mobility.
Within this objective, the following action is proposed:

1. To design spaces to promote networking and bidirectional communication between the University and social agents and collectives, with the support of the Social Council, among others.

 
4. To implement strategies for the acquisition of diversified resources, linked to accountability mechanisms and programme contracts.
Within this objective, the following actions are proposed:

1. To ensure budgetary stability, with good accountability and based on the reinforcement of target agreements with public financiers.
2. To diversify financial sources by increasing the attractiveness of private resources, with ethics and traceability.