The University Camilo José Cela (UCJC)

UCJC’S COMMITMENT TO CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

Overview

The University Camilo José Cela (UCJC) is a private academic institution founded in 2000. It belongs to the SEK Educational Institution, which includes six international schools in Spain along with three more schools in France, Ireland and Qatar.

Our educational model is based on three main axes: interdisciplinarity, innovation, and internationalization. With the student as a central reference, we conceive their education in a transversal, multidisciplinary way while keeping in mind that our responsibility is not only to feed their intellect but also to enable them to be active individuals, supportive and committed to shaping the world. Therefore, under this premise, the University created a foundation (see video here) to manage and promote the social impact of its educational model for the development of social innovation experiences.

From the Foundation, the University promotes discussion on service-learning and research applied to the needs of society. To this end, the Foundation established a Framework of Action to guide the interaction of UCJC with society, seeking to promote humane and sustainable development. This framework of action is based on three dimensions:

• Global Citizenship Education: Developing educational initiatives to promote a more sustainable world, focusing on the comprehensive training of students by incorporating awareness and social commitment.
• Pedagogy and Learning Environments: Create spaces for lifelong learning that encourage the exchange of ideas, experiences and research between the university community and society.
• Social Transformation: Facilitate the interaction of the university community with initiatives that raise problems and needs of our society.

The social-educational innovation based on social commitment, has materialized in the following actions:

1. Educational Community:

• SFERA Experience: Collaborative space of social innovation in which students with interdisciplinary training belonging to Latin American universities can work together to face challenges that imply social and environmental transformations in favor of the local or global community.
• Knowledge Volunteering: Provide our students with the possibility of offering society the knowledge acquired in their respective studies by collaborating with different types of organizations, both national and foreign.

1. Education in Vulnerable Contexts:

• Peace Campus: Center of emotional attention for victims of terrorism.
• INTEGRA Project: University integration for young refugees.
• The Wise Women of Kakuma: University training for teachers working in refugee camps.
• EachTeach: Created to promote and support the teaching skills of teachers working in vulnerable contexts.