The frontier of knowledge to every village

Larry Summers, President Emeritus of Harvard, said during the final day of the 5th Universia Universities Summit that a university's success should be to take the frontier of knowledge to every village on the planet. In today's constantly-changing society, with new technologies removing barriers between the digital and physical world, this is possible.

As Summers highlighted, universities need to change to leave behind old practices and adopt new ones.

Santander believes that there is no better social investment than education: we decided 26 years ago to support universities, and since then, we have helped over a million people and businesses through partnerships with more than 1,500 institutions. Recently, we committed to investing an additional 400 million euros by 2026 to continue promoting education, employability, and entrepreneurship.

In Valencia, we were over 1,200 attendees, including 700 university Presidents representing 14 million students from across Europe, the United States, Latin America, and the United Kingdom, gathered under the theme "University and Society" to discuss the future of higher education. When society invests in education, it grows sustainably, is more open and diverse, creates opportunity for everyone, and can tackle the conflicts and challenges of the future. It fosters collective well-being and prosperity, making personal development more attainable.

When we support universities, the entire community reaps the reward. When universities make progress, so does society.

Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, exemplified this idea through his work, demonstrating the transformative power of knowledge and innovation. And yesterday, I had the opportunity to chat with Pau Gasol and thousands of beneficiaries (80 here and 4,500 more online) of the scholarship and entrepreneurship programs that Santander Open Academy promotes, showcasing the values and aspirations of the society they aim to create.

The stunning City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia served as the perfect venue for the meeting. The agreed-upon Valencia Declaration serves as a blueprint for universities' contribution towards a sustainable and fair future for society. A future that is rooted in our dedication to education, research, and its transfer.

A big thank you to the Academic Committee, International Committee, Presidents, authorities, speakers, and the Banco Santander teams for your hard work. If each attendee went home with one new idea, a clearer vision of how to define greatness, and a few new contacts with whom to build that future, then, for me, the meeting was an overwhelming success.

As Kierkegaard said, "life can only be understood looking backward, but it has to be lived forward." The Fallas festival, a Valencia tradition, embodies this spirit of embracing change and looking forward to the future. I hope everyone left Valencia, as I am, excited about the future, optimistic about our potential, and confident that together we can make tomorrow better than today.

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