The Valencian Agency for Assessment and Foresight (AVAP), represented by its Director General Javier Oliver Villarroya, took part on Friday, 31 October, in the Opening Ceremony of the 2025–2026 Academic Year at UNED Valencia — an event marked by remembrance of the 2024 DANA floods and the call for a “university with a soul”.
UNED Valencia held its Opening Ceremony for the 2025–2026 Academic Year, an event dedicated to the memory of the victims of the tragic DANA storm of 29 October 2024 — the first anniversary of which has just been commemorated — and to honouring the resilience of the academic community in the face of disaster.
The ceremony, held at the university’s headquarters in Valencia, began with a minute of silence in tribute to those who lost their lives in the floods. It was presided over by UNED Rector Ricardo Mairal, alongside Alejandro Cerdá, Director of the Alzira–Valencia Associated Centre, and attended by several authorities, including Javier Oliver Villarroya, Director General of the Valencian Agency for Assessment and Foresight (AVAP), and Virtuts Piera, Councillor for Education of the Alzira City Council.
Inaugural Lecture: from disaster memory to the climate future
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Professor M.ª José Estrela Navarro, Chair of Geography at the University of Valencia, under the title “One Year After the Valencia DANA: Between the Memory of Disaster and the Climate Future.”
Professor Estrela stressed that the data confirm the acceleration of global warming and reminded the audience that, although climate change is a global phenomenon, its effects are not evenly distributed, with particular concern for the Mediterranean region.
“We must be aware that the climate of the future already depends, to some extent, on us humans — in addition to natural factors,” she warned, affirming that “the future is already here.”
She emphasised that we are living through a critical moment in a region where population continues to grow, making it essential to take urgent and decisive measures to strengthen resilience. She closed her address by quoting Valencian poet Vicent Andrés Estellés: “I have seen things, I have cried a lot”.
A university with a soul
In his remarks, Rector Ricardo Mairal reflected on “the way of making a university” and shared his aspiration to build a “university with a soul,” “where the culture of reason and the culture of the heart coexist.”
He highlighted the need for spaces of balanced, compassionate, and respectful reflection that help recover temperance and serenity, and pointed to Valencian society as an example of commitment, solidarity, respect, and hope. With emotion, he urged everyone to keep alive the memory of the DANA victims and their families.
Alejandro Cerdá, Director of UNED Alzira–Valencia, recalled that 29 October 2024 “will mark our collective memory as a people and as a society for the scale and extent of an unprecedented devastation,” stressing that the loss of human life was “the greatest of the tragedies endured.”
He expressed gratitude to the tutoring faculty, who “adapted to the urgency of the situation,” and recognised the perseverance of the more than 1,900 students affected who continued their studies despite the challenges.
Councillor Virtuts Piera highlighted education as “one of the main levers of personal and social development” and expressed pride in the continued presence of UNED in Alzira.
For his part, AVAP Director General Javier Oliver conveyed the Agency’s commitment to strengthen collaboration with UNED, in order to promote quality and continuous improvement in the Valencian university system, in line with the principles of equity, innovation, and social responsibility.
During the event, testimonies collected in a documentary produced by the UNED Audiovisual Media Centre (CEMAV) about the flood and its legacy one year later were shown. The documentary is also broadcast on the programme Universo UNED on Spain’s national TV channel La 2.
The ceremony featured a musical performance by the Bèrnia trio, the presentation of diplomas and scholarships to graduates from the last two academic years, and a review of the main achievements of the previous year.
The traditional academic hymn Gaudeamus igitur brought the event to a close — a ceremony filled with emotion, gratitude, and commitment.
The Valencian Agency for Assessment and Foresight (AVAP) reaffirms its commitment to an excellent, equitable, and resilient higher education system, supporting universities across the Valencian Community in their efforts towards assessment, continuous improvement, and educational innovation, always placing people at the centre of academic quality.
Photo credits: UNED Alzira–València.
