II Meeting of the Spanish National Association of University Programmes for Older Adults – Madrid

AGENDA

• Report of management since the celebration of the Constituent Assembly.
• Admission of new universities.
• Information of preparations for the VIII Meeting.
• Shares for the 2004-2005 course: Work Commissions
• Proposal from the University of Castilla La Mancha for the celebration of a monographic Seminar. (The University of Castilla La Mancha has requested previously to delete this point).

ATTENDING

CONTENT

The meeting starts at 11:25 with the president José Arnay welcoming the attendants, congratulating Mr Salvador Ordóñez for his appointment as State Secretary of the University and thanking him for his attendance in the Assembly.

The president points out that the Association has a main objective, which is to anchor the University Programmes for Older Adults to the University Institution and informs to Mr Salvador that he will request him a meeting in October or November to focus on this issue, since the University Programmes for Older Adults, with nearly 25.000 students, must be part of the Permanent Education in the framework of European Convergence.

Mr Salvador Ordóñez welcomes the Association and the new incorporated Universities. He points out that, as Rector of the University of Alicante, he supported the work of Concha Bru, who works with enthusiasm on the Programmes for Older Adults. He justifies briefly the changes into the structure of the Ministry and some of the problems of the European Area.

Regarding to the Lifelong Learning, he indicated that the University Programmes for Older Adults fit in the Bologna Declaration and that the trend to consider the university as a place only for getting a degree is sanctified and it is necessary to break some taboos according to this issue. Some aspects that must be taken into account regarding to the roll of the University:

• Not to marginalize anyone: everyone has the right to education by personal dignity.
• Active integration of the older adults in the university getting enrolled like other students with previous level courses, if needed.
• May it would be possible to think about Older Adults Degrees, for that the teachers could justify their educational orientation programmes.
• It mustn't be forgotten that some older adults can contribute with lots of things to the society with their experience: offering their professional experience of experts as advisers. The SECOC programmes are very interesting.
• The older adults can be not only students and continue learning during their life, but also co-operators (gold partners) and have the opportunity to teach.

After saying goodbye to Mr Salvador Ordóñez, the Secretary of the Association starts to read the Minutes of the Constituent Assembly, which is approved noting that the date of its celebration must be written down: 27^th of February 2004.

a) REPORT OF MANAGEMENT SINCE THE LAST CELEBRATION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

Each attendant is given a written report (Annex II) by José Arnay, who starts commenting  it:

Spanish National Association of University Programmes for Older Adults:

Legalization of the Association: the statutes were legalized on 13^th of May 2004 and the Association was registered with number 171.920 in the National Register of Associations.

We are waiting to formalize the application of the tax ID (NIF) of the Association to proceed to implement the Treasury.

The Rectors of Spanish Universities have been sent a greeting from the President.

It has been sent to all members of the Association a letter notifying them their membership into the Association, and to the members of the Board of Directors their membership in the Board.

WORK COMMISSIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The distribution of work by committees coordinating members of the Board of Directors is not only open to the collaboration of other universities; it is also convenient to get involved with the work as much as possible.

The Association raises 4 main objectives in the field of its competences:

1. Institutional recognition of University Programmes for Older Adults by the Education and Cultural Ministry and/or by the regional regulations.

2. To boost the teaching quality and to improve the programmes through researching, doctoral thesis, etc.

3. To promote an information net between the Spanish and also European and Latin American Universities through a web page.

4. Having already legal entity, the Spanish National Association of University Programmes for Older Adults (AEPUM) must have a greater role as the institutional representative of partner universities in their relations with public and private institutions and administrations.

Distribution of work by the different Commissions of the Board of Directors:

– Recognition, validation and approval of the Programmes

            - Coordinating: Universities of La Laguna, Pontifical of Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela.

            - José Arnay is developing a report about where we are and where we want to go institutionally in the    European Convergence. Part of this work will be presented in the VIII Meeting.

– Report about the validation of the University Programmes for Older Adults by the entrance exams for people over 25 in certain Official Degrees.

            - Coordinating: University of Murcia, Santiago de Compostela, Granada and Alicante.

– Research lines:

– Evaluation of the Programmes:

            - Coordinating: Pontifical University of Salamanca, Rovira i Virgili, Girona and Granada.

            - They are starting the configuration of the evaluation of these Programmes. The Pontifical University    of Salamanca with the support of the other universities will send to all the universities an initial            questionnaire, which will be used to prepare their contributions in the expert panel of the VIII            Meeting.

            - European Convergence (European Higher Education Area)

            - Coordinating: Universities of Alicante and Murcia.

Concha Bru talks in this section -as coordinator of the research group about the integration of the programmes in Europe- about the status of the application submitted on 28^th of June to the III Call for proposals of the ANECA. The application seeks to obtain the adequate funding for a study that would lead to the elaboration of a White Book about the possibility of providing to the University programmes for Older Adults the recognition of a degree, which is not professionalized but listed in the official catalogue of degrees. In the call coordinated by Alicante there have been 22 Spanish Universities, which represent all the autonomous communities except Extremadura and el País Vasco. The answer of the concession or not concession won't be available until 15^th of July. If so, the work would begin in September. This work is complementary to another carried-out works by AEPUM in the framework of the evaluation of the Programmes, the ones oriented to the European Convergence and with the elaboration of the White Book about the educational necessities of the older adults in Spain.

– Creation of the AEPUM web site:

            - Coordinating: University of Alicante

            - Concha Bru exposes the management carried out for the creation of the web.

            - Domain name registration can be AEPUMayores.org. Nobody objects the proposal.

                        - Basic schema of the web page:

                        - Presentation: constitution, goals and members.

                        - Detail of the Association membership:

• Board of Directors
• Universities
• Institutions

                        - Works of the Association:

• Board of Directors: Meetings and contents
• Assemblies: meetings and contents

                        - National Meetings

                        - Links of University Programmes for Older Adults in Spain, Europe and Latin America.

                        - European Higher Education Area

            - When the definitive design has been made, it will be sent to all universities in order to they can make suggestions.

– Association Magazine.

            - Coordinating: University of Granada, Alicante and Córdoba.

            - The objective is to study the creation of a magazine of AEPUM with scientific character.

            - The group SENDA has made an offer to take on developing the magazine's edition and distribution,   but it was also proposed to request the Publication Services of the Universities for proposals to         decide.

– Internal Rules of Procedure:

            - Coordinating: Universities of Córdoba and Murcia

            - They are responsible for elaborating a proposal of Internal Rules

– White Book about the educational necessities of Older Adults in Spain.

            - For the previous project of elaborating a White Book the president informs that the Board of Directors asked Juan Antonio Lorenzo to continue as coordinator of this project, which started two    years ago in collaboration with the IMSERSO. The teacher Juan Antonio Lorenzo has informed to        the Board of Directors about the status of this project after the last changes in the IMSERSO.

            - The representative of the Complutense University, Mª Ángeles Ruiz Colomé asks why Juan Antonio     Lorenzo continues as a coordinator of the project. The representatives of the University of Alicante,       Girona, Rovira i Virgili and of the IMSERSO answer that he started to coordinate the project and        they have considered convenient to renew him in this task.

            - Mª Ángeles Ruiz Colomé says that the work has been made by the team and that the Complutense University doesn't support this proposal. José Arnay concludes saying that he hopes       there is no conflict for this reason since the work commissions constituted and approved by the     Board of Directors, as the Art. 16 indicates in its 2^nd and 3^rd sections of the Association Statutes, they          can apply for the collaboration and/or advice of experts for the realization of specific works.

Calendar of Meetings and Seminars

The last point of the report of the President reefers to planned Meetings and Seminars:

University of Murcia: Seminar about European Convergence. Possible dates: May – June  2005. Attendants: one or two representatives per University without students.

University of Almería: IX Meeting the proposal is maintained and the date will be adapted.

Point C of the agenda is advanced to finish with the information.

c) Information of the preparations of the VIII Meeting

Mª Adoración Holgado remembers that in the Assembly on 27^th of February it was accepted the request of the Universities of Castilla y León to organize the VIII Meeting, since they have the offer of subvention of the Castilla y Leon Regional Government's and IMSERSO.

Both pre-programme and negotiations for reaching the definitive programme, on 5^th of May, were communicated to the Universities of Castilla y León and to the members of the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors will sign an agreement with the IMSERSO to justify the expenses. We know from the IMSERSO that some days ago the budgets sent by the Board were accepted. We are waiting for the IMSERSO and the Board of Directors to redact and sign them.

The design of the Programme has been sent by the Board of Universities and it is presented to the consideration of the Board of Directors and the Assembly.

The President of the Board of Directors points out that it will be the last meeting in which the Association will let sharing prominence with other Institutions. The meetings are scientific events organised by the Association and the University which proposes its realization. The public or private financial institutions will figure as collaborating entities of the meetings. 

Specifically, for the VIII Meeting the President requests:

That the association's logo must be in the same level and size as the one from Castilla y León regional government's and the IMSERSO.

That the Organisation Committee must be the same number of university representatives as the public administrations that finances it.

That the Scientific Committee, as with the Meetings of the Alicante and the Escorial, will be constituted by the members of the Board of Directors of the Association.

b- Admission of new Universities:

The following Universities presented the required documentation:

Public University of Navarra. Representative: Milagros Pollán Rufo.

Autonomous University of  Madrid. Representative: Rocío Fernández Ballesteros

Carlos III University Madrid. Representative: Mercedes Caridad Sebastián

University of Lleida. Representative: Neus Vila Rubio

University of Valladolid. Representative: Carmen Del Valle López

The University of Sevilla presents the documentation with formal defect since it doesn't attach the certificate but a copy of the Minutes of Board of Government and without the name of the representative. Its incorporation is provisionally admitted and will be ratified in the next Assembly.

At this point Mª Luz Neira, representative of the University Carlos III, who has to leave, requests to make a suggestion on behalf of her University, which is to change the name of the State Association for National or Spanish; M. Josep Sabaté answers that this is not appropriate since there are various nationalities in the Spanish State. On the other hand Mª Luz Neira offers the possibility to make the meetings of the Assembly at the Carlos III University, she is thanked for the offer.

The IMSERSO presents the request to be part of the Association and after an extensive debate about the possible interpretations of what it is established in the Statutes in the Title III (of the partners), Articles 17 and 15, it is concluded that the IMSERSO can be incorporated as Honour Partner, but as it is not a University and it is not scheduled on the agenda, their incorporation will be ratified in the next Assembly.

Dolores López Bravo, representative of the University Studies Higher Centre La Salle, attached to the Autonomous University of Madrid, with an own Programme for Older Adults, asks if it can request its incorporation as partner. In the case of being a Centre attached to a university, the representation in the Association corresponds to this university.

The sitting closed at 14:00h of the 2^nd of July 2004.

Secretary of the Board of Directors