University of Valladolid

Quality > Buendia

The University of Valladolid provides a tremendous cultural spur in the cities of its four campuses. This is channelled through the Culture and Extension area, which depends on the office of the Vice-chancellor for Institutional Relations. The activities it promotes focus mainly on summer and winter courses, the Santa Cruz Estival, cinema and music seasons, as well as exhibitions, to name but a few.

The Permanent University of Millán Santos is an initiative of the University of Valladolid and offers a place of learning for those over 40 who feel the need to develop their skills, renew their culture and gain personal fulfilment, sharing lecture theatres and timetables with other university students.

Within the spirit of social integration and cooperation that runs through all the activities of the University of Valladolid, special mention should be made of the role played by university Chairs: the Chair of the Histor y and Aesthetics of Cinematography, the oldest of its kind in Spain, the Chair of Studies in Tradition, set up through an agreement between the University of Valladolid and the Joaquín Díaz Foundation. Finally, the Chair of Gender Studies and the Chair for Interdisciplinary Studies deal with aspects of enormous social and intellectual relevance, contributing to the diversification of the educational panorama of the University of Valladolid.

On a more leisurely note, two highly popular and interesting initiatives, the Estival Santa Cruz (summer activities) and the Universijazz, jazz festival deserve a mention. The former, now in its eleventh year, uses as a stage one of the leading and best preserved cloisters of early Spanish renaissance: the Cloister of the Palace of Santa Cruz, which currently houses the University of Valladolid chancellor’s office. It includes a wide- anging programme of varying styles (basically, theatre and music) with a view to offering the university’s cultural programme to the general public. Of equal importance is the Universijazz festival, offering a programme open to various types of jazz from all over the world, including an intellectual dimension since, in the week of concerts at the end of July, round-table meetings and photographic exhibitions are held and films are shown reflecting the iconography and myths of classical and contemporary jazz.

The Social Council of the University of Valladolid also plays a fundamental role in promoting culture as it organises different activities each year, aimed at furthering relations between the university and society. These include the series of lectures on the “University-Society Classroom,” the University Society Dissemination Award, Programmes offering Support for Enterprise Creation and the “Social Council” writing competition.

Summer and winter courses

The University of Valladolid organises an annual series of Summer Conferences with a view to bringing together in Valladolid the most renowned national as well as international specialists to debate the current state of varied issues in the 21^st century.

The University of Valladolid also offers a variety of Summer Courses during the summer period. Prominent amongst these, due to their excellence and long-standing tradition, are the courses in Language and Culture for Foreign Students, organised by the General Foundation of the University, or the course on the Recuperation of Traditional Building Techniques, organised by the Master’s Degree in Architectural Restoration under the auspices of the Advanced Technical School of Architecture together with the Cultural Area of the University and held in Soria in collaboration with the Navapalos Foundation. Also of great relevance is the summer course on the European Union, organised by the Institute of European Studies and the course on Cultural Heritage, organised by the Chair of Studies in Tradition in collaboration with the Joaquín Díaz Foundation in el Castillo de la Mota, in Medina del Campo. Finally, during the month of August, the prestigious Course and Master in Cinematography is held, organised by the Chair of Cinematography of the University of Valladolid.

The University of Valladolid Winter Courses are of a slightly different nature and come together under the generic title “The last ten years.” They are held in March and seek to offer a response to the challenges posed by the growing diversification of branches of learning and the global circulation of information, so typical of our times. To respond to this challenge, the University of Valladolid appeals to the work of professionals who are specialists in their various fields of expertise and who have in-depth knowledge which they can convey both to a demanding public who are familiar with the subject as well as to those who may not be. The presence of leaders in the field of scientific progress paves the way to establishing a rich dialogue of ideas and thoughts through which tomorrow’s world can be built today. Notable successes in recent years have included courses on Religious Conflicts, the Last Ten Years of Archives in Spain, Organisational Engineering, Musical Research, Physiotherapy, Telecommunications, Globalisation and Migration, Trends in Semiotics during the last decade of the 20^th century, Sustainable Development and Environmental Management in Universities, Computational Science, the Other Languages of Spain, Speech Therapy and Physical Educational in Schools in the University