The University of La Laguna and Adeje Town Hall yesterday announced details of the 31st Adeje Summer University, the UVA. The university classes, in Adeje, will run from July 22 -26, with 12 courses and 6 workshops, with the themes of effort and inclusion running through much of the activities.
Adeje mayor José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga said that the initiative began 31 years ago to address a student demand in a region that was seen from a socio-demographic point of view as complex, and where perhaps the profusion of tourist activity discouraged young students from continuing with their studies. These summer courses thus met a social demand for new content still present today, through other shorter formats, online teaching and a multiplicity of practical workshops.
In the same vein, the rector of the University of La Laguna, Francisco Garcia, said that the UVA has managed to continuously reinvent itself and adapt to new times, at a time, moreover, dominated by "simplistic" rhetoric, he said, "and against which the only antidote is academic rigour, debate and the use of science and knowledge”.
The fruit of this intense and long-standing collaboration has been the creation of a university campus in the south, where a BA in Tourism is now taught, and where prospective students from the south can sit their pre-university entrance exams.
Each course will cost €25, €10 for the workshops, there will be a free transport service, as every year, and in addition to the academic programme, there will be a series of complementary activities which will take place in the town's auditorium, with talks, concerts, recitals and debates.
This year students will also meet a number of athletes with functional diversities, to show the youngsters that with effort and hard work many goals are more than possible. Jesús Vidal, from the film 'Campeones', will be a guest, and this film also has a special focus on inclusion. Finally, the journalist Jesús Cintora will take part, with a book signing and discussion.
The opening address at the inauguration of the university is on 19 July and will be given by Faustino Alonso, from Athletes Without Borders, with the participation of the singer Fabiola Socas. The local artist responsible for this year’s summer university poster is Aída Díaz.
Courses and workshops
The courses, which cover all kinds of subjects, have ten hours of classroom time and another fifteen hours of independent work by the student, while the workshops, which are shorter in format, have four hours of classroom time.
