For the inaugural lecture of the 2002-2003 academic year, we have turned to Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. We did so because his qualities and suitability as a person and the importance of the institution which he presides are reason enough to guarantee that his message is, for all of us, a "lecture". A lecture on a theme as important as that of ensuring that people are able to feel that they have decent conditions of life which is, besides being a moral right, the key to and guarantee of peace.
I would like the debate on these issues -a debate in which I earnestly invite you to participate- to focus on suggesting how we could collaborate to make that possible and how we can do so, above all, from what we might do with communications technology and with the widest possible diffusion of knowledge. There would be no better way to thank Juan Manuel Suárez for his honouring the UOC which, on behalf of all, I am most grateful for.
Allow me just a brief reflection on this symbolic occasion, the inauguration of an academic year. We are able to celebrate it, year after year, because we have passed the tests -personal and collective ones- that permit us to begin a year packed with opportunities both for those that study as well as for those that work here. But the state of the world forces us also to think that further opportunities for many others depend on what we do: all that the UOC devotes to research, to methodological innovation, to quality, to internationalisation, has as its objective the improvement of the opportunities offered to other people and other societies.
Neither discouragement nor the deficiencies that we sometimes have to face, caused by constant changes and improvements, can make us forget that we participate in an institution that is advancing and that is a cause of progress. I would like us all, as this course commences, to feel involved and committed, with our work and with our attitude, to making it possible.
A good 2002-2003 to you all!
Gabriel Ferraté
Rector of the UOC
