A word from the Rector

Universities keep alive everything humanity has learnt over many generations of scientific and intellectual endeavour and sheer hard work. We keep this knowledge alive by understanding it and this is a key part of our mission. We are the active memory of everything we have come to understand across all fields of knowledge. This fight against oblivion may seem unproductive – some might say pointless – and yet it has shown itself to be the best way to foster creativity and generate new avenues for the development of society.

Today, universities are charged with the task of educating and training the professionals our productive systems and services need. That is why our students’ employability is a fundamental priority for us. However, if we focus only to producing professionals, then, if even if we do this extremely well, we will consign elements of knowledge to oblivion and this will impede the generation of new knowledge.

Therefore, our purpose cannot only be to produce tomorrow's professionals – we must also shape our students to be citizens who can preserve the past by understanding it and then use this to reimagine the future through inventiveness and creativity. We must foster their development as citizens who can think critically, who are open-minded, who are intellectually curious and who can participate in debate. In this way, not only do we enhance our ability to live together in harmony, but we also ensure the viability of our productive systems, which are unsustainable in medium and long term without the right expertise. But all the while we also remain aware of our duty and need to take care of other people and the world.

In the case of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University, we are charged with the development of young people who have freely chosen a Christian university education which must meet the requirements of their faith and of the times we live in. The chance to pass on this timeless legacy to a new generation is a source of great joy.

In every sense then, the University is, as it has been for centuries, the land of youth.

Dr. Higinio Marín Pedreño
The Rector