{"id":6291,"date":"2026-06-04T12:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/2026\/06\/04\/universidades-publicas-canarias-crean-asociacion\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T11:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:30:44","slug":"universidades-publicas-canarias-crean-asociacion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/2026\/06\/04\/universidades-publicas-canarias-crean-asociacion\/","title":{"rendered":"The public universities of the Canary Islands create an association to defend higher education in the islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Aula Magna of the Central Building hosted today, June 4, the presentation of the Association of Public Universities of the Canary Islands (UPCAN), an entity that was created with the purpose of defending the interests of higher education in the islands "at a time when we have never been so necessary nor have we been so threatened," said Francisco Garc\u00eda, rector of the ULL, during the event.<\/p>\n

Image gallery<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Accompanied by his counterpart from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Llu\u00eds Serra, this non-profit organization was created with the aim of fostering university cooperation, promoting internationalization, and strengthening social commitment. Both rectors maintained that the association is a tool that is not directed against anyone, but rather in defense of "the greatest social elevator in the Canary Islands," although they clarified that they will request clarity regarding criteria and quality standards within the Canarian university system, where other institutions also operate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Francisco Garc\u00eda and Llu\u00eds Serra, after having signed the founding document of the association.<\/p><\/div>\n

Serra noted that the implementation of this structure, which will soon be presented to the regional government and other bodies, is the result of a long history of collaboration. \u201cWe have demonstrated that university unity is a tangible reality, we have advocated for a decent budget for our institutions, carried out collaborative initiatives at the national and international levels, and supported the recent manifesto in defense of the Canary Islands' public universities,\u201d Serra stated.<\/p>\n

The university rectors stated that major challenges require shared responses and that the Canary Islands public university system "is the main ecosystem of talent and innovation" in the archipelago, while highlighting its potential as an economic engine and driver of the social transformations that the region needs.<\/p>\n

Francisco Garc\u00eda, the first president of the entity, a position that will be rotating, emphasized the extraordinary nature of this association, which will provide public universities with greater strength and greater social utility, with a catalog of more than one hundred university degrees between the two and only universities in the islands where new knowledge is created, a very distinctive element of what is a university and what is not, Garc\u00eda pointed out.<\/p>\n

The association will also engage in dialogue with other stakeholders in the same field, such as the Andalusian universities, with whom they have already held two coordination meetings and are working on the third edition. \u201cWe are going to work to broaden our social impact,\u201d the rectors affirmed. This initiative will also serve to reiterate the demand for achieving the target of 11% of the regional GDP by 2030, which would entail a budget of nearly \u20ac500 million for the two institutions, compared to the less than \u20ac300 million they currently have, they added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe represent a university community of more than 45,000 people and we are one of the most important assets of the archipelago,\u201d said Garc\u00eda and Serra, who will hold the presentation of the association tomorrow, Friday, at the ULPGC.<\/p>\n

Most of the former rectors of the University of La Laguna, the deans and directors of centers and departments, the president of Alumni, spokespeople of cloister groups, union representation and other agents were present at the event, which was also attended by a delegation from the ULPGC<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aula Magna of the Central Building hosted today, June 4th, the presentation of the Association of Public Universities\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,59,10],"tags":[2946,2947,2948],"class_list":["post-6291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destacado","category-institucion","category-portada-ull","tag-asociacion-de-universidades-pubicas-canarias","tag-universidades-publicas","tag-upcan"],"acf":[],"primary_category":null,"featured_image_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Present-Asociac-UPCAM-39-300x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6296,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions\/6296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}