increased (more patents are applied for and more companies have been set up. As a result, the URV is now included in the most prestigious world rankings. In 2016, it was included for the first time in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (drawn up by the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai) and was in
INSTITUTION // PAGE
the top 500. For the second consecutive year, the journal Times Higher Education classified the URV in the 401-500 range of the best universities in the world and for the forth year running it is one of the top 100 universities in the world under 50 years old (200 under 50 years Ranking, 2017).
10
THE ATTRACTION OF SCIENCE The Catalan Government, the URV and the AEQT form the STEM Alliance and they are involved in a pilot scheme to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics The aim of the STEM Alliance is to promote programmes for school children designed to increase vocations and attract talent to science and technology. It is an initiative of the Catalan Government, the URV and the Chemical Business Association of Tarragona (AEQT), which was set in motion on 15 March with the signature of an agreement between the rector of the URV, Josep Anton Ferré, the Minister of Education of the Catalan Government, Meritxell Ruiz, and the president of the AEQT, Josep Francesc Font. The STEM Alliance engages in programmes designed for students and teachers from primary and secondary schools, and encourages researchers, technicians, university students and experts in science education, from research centres and companies, to take part. During the academic year 2016-2017, the programme Learning Science through Investigation (ACTI) has been piloted with seven schools (five primary and two secondary) from the Camp de Tarragona. It is part of a lifelong-learning activity
for teachers that includes theoretical and practical content, classroom experimentation, reflection and consolidation of the learning and the educational impact in the schools. For the classroom experimentation the schools have been supplied with free experimental materials by the APQUA project, the CESIRE of the Department of Education and SCIENTIX (a community for teaching sciences in Europe). These materials provide a more in-depth knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and how they are related to our lives. They also make it possible for the methodology to focus on interesting topics, so the content of the curriculum can be taught through experimentation. This project also supplies primary and secondary schools with materials for experimental work in the natural sciences, biology, geology, physics and chemistry, technology, health and sustainability. As well as the lifelong learning activity, there are also activities that focus on the assessment of education and research in an attempt to increase the number of pupils with a scientific vocation, and teaching self-efficacy and practice. At the end of the 2016-2017 academic year the collaboration will be assessed, possible future actions will be planned and the results will be published.
LONG-TERM COLLABORATION
INSTITUTION // PAGE
which deal with chemical products and processes for school children and adults. With the STEM Alliance, the institutions want to update and extend this collaboration in the general framework of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
11
CRAI URV: AN EXAMPLE OF EFFICIENCY The system of libraries at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili has been ranked as the most efficient in Spain The ranking of Spanish university libraries drawn up by SECABA-Lab of the University of Granada considers the system of libraries at the URV to be the most efficient of all Spain’s university libraries. The URV CRAI system’s power index is double the average of the network of Spanish University Libraries (Rebiun). The URV is followed in efficiency by the libraries of the Universitat Politècnica de València, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Universitat de Barcelona in the top five places.
The SECABA-Lab is a multidisciplinary group made up of researchers from the fields of documentation and computer science. Directed by Enrique Herrera, the group specialises in evaluating the quality and the accessibility of information. Every year it draws up one ranking of university libraries and another of public library systems. The analysis is based on the indicator of the power of the system, which is the ratio of the input power (the budget) and the output power (circulation, measured as loans and the digital documents downloaded). In 2015, this index was 2.08 for the URV when the mean for the Rebiun was a baseline index of 1.00. The list contains 43 universities, 19 of which have an efficiency that is above the mean.
summary in ENGLISH // URV, REVISTA DE LA UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI
The URV, the Department of Education of the Catalan Government and the Chemical Business Association of Tarragona have been working together as part of the APQUA project for more than 25 years on educational programmes in science and technology
85