The University of Navarra has presented project Universitas, an innovative process of reflection and improvement of the university teaching , which aims to adapt curricula and methodologies to improve the professional preparation that the university offers its students.

Unive rsitas is part of the axis Education Transforming of the Strategy 2025 of the University of Navarra. The initiative was presented during the VI edition of the Innova Forum "Towards a formative project center", organized by the Quality and Innovation service of the academic center, which brought together nearly 400 professors and staff of administration and services at the Museum of the University of Navarra. 

The goal of project is that each center of the University defines the professionalprofile of its students, taking into account the social context; and to design the learning models to achieve it and integrate them in the degrees of Degree. In this framework, Universitas defines the concept of professional identity as the set of knowledge, attitudes, values and qualities proper to a professional field, which shapes the person. Another of its innovative aspects is that it starts from the base, that is, it is the professors themselves who have initiated the process to define the professional identity of the students.  

The president María Iraburu was in charge of opening this new edition of the Innova Forum and emphasized: "It is an extraordinary opportunity to work as a team, both teachers and non-teachers, to think about what we want our students to be, what environments we want to offer them so that they can develop as people and professionals". 

The Innova Forum has counted with the intervention of Max Turull, professor of the School of Law of the University of Barcelona and member of the board directive of the network of teaching University REDU, who has given the session "The importance of a formative project of center in the university institutions". "Bringing to the internship degree program or center objectives transcends the individual action of academic staff and requires a greater effort of coordination and rationalization among all the actors of the university community. To this end, it would be advisable for each center to have a specific project educational , within the general framework of each university," he said.

Afterwards, Rosalía Baena, Vice President of Students; Secundino Fernández, Vice President of Office of Academic Affairs; and Victoria Rodríguez, director of ISSA School of Applied Management, reflected in a roundtable on how to apply this project of center at the University of Navarra.

The best innovation projects professor

During the forum, the submission of the II edition of the Innova Awards for the best innovation projects professor developed at the University during the last academic year was held. The project "design, implementation and assessment of virtual reality in the curriculum of nursing", of the School of Nursing, has been the winner in the category of the best disruptive project . Directed by Professor Virginia La Rosa Salas, it includes virtual reality simulations to promote learning and complement clinical simulation. 

The project "La integración de formatos periodísticos en la elaboración de reportajes" of the School de Comunicación, directed by María del Pilar Martínez Costa, has obtained the award for the best collaborative project . In this proposal, through the selection of a topic of general or specialized current interest, the student works in a team and has to be able to design and produce two integrated journalistic products. 

"Care and Society, a new subject for a caring campus ", project developed by several centers of the university and the Institute for Culture and Society and directed by Professor Ana Carvajal Valcárcel, has been considered the best project transfer for its considerable impact both in the university community and beyond the classroom. 

In addition, the project "What really happened in Chernobyl? Implications and consequences", directed by Itziar Vélaz, professor at School , was the winner in the popular vote. The initiative analyzes the Chernobyl series from different perspectives: biological, medical, geographical, etc.

In total, 62 innovation projects were developed during the last academic year professor at the University of Navarra.