The collaboration between the two academic institutions was conceived just a year ago, in a meeting held on June 23, 2023, and will begin to materialize in the editions of this year.
For more than three decades, the two public higher education institutions of the Canary Islands have maintained programs of summer courses and seminars organized in collaboration with the municipalities of Adeje, in the case of the University of La Laguna, and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, in the case of the University of La Laguna. from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Until now, both calls have been organized independently, but now both academic centers, with the agreement of the municipal corporations involved, are looking for formulas to coordinate both programs so that they can share activities and resources.
For this reason, the City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana yesterday hosted a first work meeting led by the Vice-Rector for Culture and University Extension of the University of La Laguna and the Vice-Rector for Culture, Sports and Social Activation of the Campuses of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which was also attended by the Adeje City Council team, to specify this coordination and collaboration between summer universities, with a view to this year's editions.
This first meeting has served to establish initial contact, exchange information between both offers and establish possible lines of joint collaboration. One of the objectives is to promote a model of organizational sustainability and rationalize some of the necessary investments to optimize a common offer of speakers or participants of recognized prestige and thus enrich both programs, with special emphasis on the opening or closing events.
At the meeting, the desire of the two universities and the two town councils to consolidate a collaboration that could even go beyond the Summer Universities of Maspalomas and Adeje was evident, always with the aim of increasing the possibilities of comprehensive training and addressing the problems and needs of citizens.
This collaboration, which should take place in future meetings, seeks to establish a stable alliance that allows both summer course programs to reach many more people, in favor of their continuous training and cultural growth, without access requirements or any conditions.
Yesterday's meeting was hosted by Marco Aurelio Pérez Sánchez, mayor-president of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council; the second deputy mayor and councilor for Culture, Presidency, Human Resources and Youth of the Gran Canaria city council, Elena Álamo; the delegate councilor for Education and Culture, Esther Delgado Sánchez; the director of the Maspalomas Summer University, Guillermo Morales Matos; and the vice-rector of Culture, Sports and Social Activation of the Campuses of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, José Miguel Álamo.
The Tenerife delegation was made up of the deputy mayor and councilor of the Culture, Sports and Education Area of the Adeje City Council, Adolfo Alonso Ferrera, who acted on behalf of its mayor, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga; the Councilor for Education and Nursery School, Coraima Afonso Navarro, and the person responsible for the Technical Coordination of the area of Culture, Sports and Education, Alicia R. Alonso, both from the Adeje City Council; and the vice-rector of Culture and University Extension of the University of La Laguna, Isabel K. León Pérez.
Institutional collaboration
This working meeting is the result of the climate of collaboration and good understanding that has been established for several years now between the universities of La Laguna and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In a meeting held on June 23, 2023 in downtown Tenerife, chaired by the rectors Francisco García and Lluís Serra, both government teams expressed their willingness to strengthen joint action in various areas and establish a line of stable collaboration between the Summer Universities from both institutions.
This point was developed thanks to the advice of the director of the University Extension Secretariat of the University of La Laguna, Janet Hernández, who coordinated the exchange of the sectoral group with various work areas related to the Vice-Rectorate of Culture and University Extension of the Tenerife center, which served to point out possible lines of work and culminated in yesterday's meeting, held in Gran Canaria at the proposal of the University of La Laguna and initiative of the Adeje City Council, with the excellent disposition of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council, who acted as hosts.
