Madrid, June 6, 2023.
Crue Spanish Universities’ General Assembly has elected Eva Alcón, Rector of the Universitat Jaume I, as the new President of this Association during its meeting held on Tuesday 6th June at the headquarters of the Fundación Mapfre in Madrid. Rector Alcón will be the second woman to preside Crue, association made up of 76 universities (50 public and 26 private), and her mandate will follow the one of Juan Romo.
After her election, the new President has highlighted that, in this new institutional period, ‘Crue will be strengthened as a Forum of university debate, where joint institutional action will be structured to contribute to positively influencing university policy and decisions affecting science and innovation and, thus, to advance the Spanish university system’. Alcón stressed the importance of harnessing ‘the full potential of a plural and diverse university system with a great capacity to transform society’.
During her speech, Rector Alcón shared the priorities for the next two years, which include reiterating Crue’s claim of achieving the public funding of 1% of GDP recognised in the new Spanish University Law (LOSU); having the most suitable legislative framework; actively participating in the science, technology and innovation strategy, including the claim for a Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan aimed at strengthening the Spanish university system and responding to the challenges of internationalisation, digital transformation and sustainable development.
She also referred to the importance of Crue’s position on other strategic issues such as lifelong learning, new learning and teaching formats, or the emergence of technological advances such as Artificial Intelligence, university-business and university-institution relations, entrepreneurship, and innovative development.
With the election of Rector Alcón, Crue’s Standing Committee will be formed by José Antonio Mayoral, Rector of the Universidad de Zaragoza and new Vice President of Crue, Rosa Visiedo, Rector of the Universidad CEU San Pablo who will continue as Vice President. The members of the Standing Committee will be Amaya Mendikoetxea, Rector of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Laia de Nadal, Rector of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Francisco Oliva, Rector of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, and Vicente Atxa, Rector of Mondragon Unibertsitatea.
The President’s team will also count with Eva Ferreira, Rector of the Universidad del País Vasco (EHU), as Delegate for Equality Policies and for the coordination of Next Generation Funds; and José Luján, Rector of the Universidad de Murcia, as Delegate for the development of University Law (LOSU).
About the new President
Eva Alcón Soler is Professor of English Philology and has been Rector of the Universitat Jaume I since 2018. She is the first woman to hold this position at the public university of Castellón, created in 1991.
Her involvement with Crue Spanish Universities began with the Presidency of the Language Accreditation Commission and, subsequently, she became the first Delegate for Equality Politics (2019-2021). Since 2021 she is member of the Standing Committee.
In the field of academic management, she has also been Director of Degrees; Vice-Dean of English Philology (1999-2001); Vice-Rector for Academic Planning and Student Affairs (2001-2006); Vice-Rector for International Relations (2006-2010); collaborator of the UNESCO Chair in University Management and Policy, as well as evaluator of the ANEP and member of the faculty accreditation committees of AVAP and ANECA.
In 1999 she founded the research group Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza en Lengua Inglesa (LAELA) of the Universitat Jaume I, which she directed until 2018 and in which she developed innovative approaches and research lines that made her an international reference in the study of the acquisition of the pragmatic component in learners of English as a second language.
Eva Alcón has been Visiting Professor of Birkbeck University of London; Macquarie University (Australia); Institut Für Allgemeine und Angewandte Sprachwissenshaft (University of Hamburg); University of California (Los Angeles); Anglia Rusking University (Cambridge); Trinity College (Dublin); Mercyhurst College (Pennsylvania, EEUU), and has held postdoctoral or visiting positions at the University of Brasilia; Anglia Polytechnic University (Cambridge) and The University of Liverpool.
