Graduation of the third promotion of young Prometeus students
UAB Rector Javier Lafuente congratulated the 15 students enrolled in the Prometeus programme who graduated this year and constituted the third promotion of this initiative. The graduation ceremony took place on 22 January at the Barcelona City Hall's Saló de Cent.
Prometeus is a municipal programme aimed at making access to higher education easier for secondary school students from neighbourhoods with a lower than average index of university graduates, regardless of their economic and social backgrounds. Chayma Rachdi, a UAB graduate in Humanities and former student at the Institut Barri Besòs, spoke at the event in repesentation of all graduates.
The Prometeus programme, which was first launched in the 2016/17 academic year, forms part of the Barcelona City Council's Neighbourhood Plan and includes the collaboration of the municipal platform Barcelona Ciència i Universitats and several universities, including the UAB. It provides students guidance and personalised assessment with the aim of having them enrol in a higher education institute and successfully finish their studies. Three hundred students have participated in the programme, of which 37 have graduated; and more specifically at the UAB, 47 students have enrolled since the beginning of the programme, and 10 have graduated (six of which did so this year).
Rector Lafuente congratulated both the graduates and their families for their commitment to the academic success of those participating in the Prometeus programme. He also congratulated members of the programme for its expansion, which he said exemplifies "the vocation of universities to serve the community and its surroundings" and demonstrates that "collaborations between institutions and administrations make it possible to contribute to making a better, fairer and more cohesive society". Barcelona's Mayor Jaume Collboni affirmed that "the fight against inequalities begins in the classrooms" and "what better investment can we as a city and country make if not in our education system".