The School of Philosophy and Letters holds its traditional workshop for professors at the Palacio de Olza

The School of Philosophy and Letters kicked off the new academic year 2025-2026 with a workshop for professors at the Palacio de Olza. In its fifth edition, and under the implicit premise of looking forward with deep roots, the meeting brought together more than fifty professors and doctoral students, who shared their reflections and aspirations for the coming years.

The dean, Julia Pavón, opened the workshop with an optimistic speech about the present and the future of the School: "Our project is consolidated with the incorporation of new teachers who contribute to the development of the School with new ideas, methodologies and enthusiasm, a reflection of our educational commitment". He also stressed the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue and highlighted three recent milestones: the creation of the new department of Political Science and Sociology; the consolidation of the Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), which is now in its eighth year; and the growing international momentum of the School.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary that the School of Philosophy and Letters celebrates this year, the central session has brought together in a roundtable three core topic figures of its recent history: Manuel Casado, Full Professor Emeritus of Spanish language ; María Amor Beguiristáin, Professor Emeritus of Prehistory; and Jaime Nubiola, Full Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. Moderated by Gonzalo Robles, Vice President of Strategic Projects of the University, they have reviewed these last decades from a staff, intellectual and academic perspective.

The conversation began with a reminder of the great teachers who have marked their careers. Mentioning Alejandro Llano, Jaime Nubiola stressed the "importance of each student finding a teacher who is a reference, who aspires to be like him". María Amor remembered with emotion Enrique Vallespí, whom she met in the third year of the degree program while they were working at an archaeological site in Urbasa, and had words of remembrance and gratitude for the teachers Ignacio Olábarri and José Miguel de Barandiarán. For his part, Manuel Casado recalled Antonio Fontán: "To speak of him is to speak of the Humanities, which is our common denominator". He also mentioned Professor Fernando González Ollé, pointing out that his influence and that of other professors reflects that "the international outreach of the School is not of yesterday, but has its roots since the beginning of its history.

Another central theme was the role of the Humanities in today's world. Professor Nubiola defended their relevance today with conviction: "What we teach our students is to be better people, something they will not learn in big companies, but in our classrooms. We make the University better". For his part, Manuel Casado pointed out that "the most invisible pandemic in society is the lack of meaning", and urged us to rediscover Letters as an answer to existential emptiness: "More prose and less prozac".

The conversation also addressed the evolution of research at the School. Professor Beguiristáin recalled that "research has been expensive but very satisfactory" and Jaime Nubiola was critical of some current practices: "I am very skeptical of what passes for research today. Sometimes it is only of interest to its own authors. The important thing is to contribute something relevant". For his part, Gonzalo Robles emphasized the significant research production of the School of Philosophy and Letters in these 70 years, "faithful to the founding spirit of the University of Navarra.

The student profile was another of the topics addressed. The three speakers agreed on the positive assessment of their evolution. Jaime Nubiola emphasized the positive impact of the presence of Latin American students: "The signing up of international students raises the level of the courses", he said. María Amor Beguiristáin, with humor, recalled that "in our time only the Kenyans who came here spoke English. Manuel Casado, for his part, highlighted the creative dimension of the students: "This School has produced a good issue of poets, from Miguel d'Ors, to young people who publish in the best publishing houses in the sector".

They also reflected on their experience in university government tasks, positions they combined with teaching and research during their academic careers. Professor Beguiristáin said, "Everyone should go through some kind of assignment, because you learn a lot". Professor Nubiola defended the balance between teaching, research and service and encouraged "these three legs to be active and at the service of the academic community".

The workshop concluded with a lecture position Javier Santos, Full Professor of Business Organization at Tecnun-School of Engineering, who spoke about the "official document of the professor: a shared metaphor", with which he reinforced the idea of the human and transformative value of university teaching .

During the session, he shared his experience as a professor and reflected on some of the issues he addressed in the last edition of the Innova Forum, organized by the Planning and Improvement of teaching Service of the University, where he received the award for the best transfer project .

Under the degree scroll "Looking for the perfect syllabus in Operations Management", the award-winning project consisted of the revision and improvement of the contents of the subjects related to Operations Management. As he explained at the Forum, "there was a feeling that the syllabus was chosen by the professor based on his experience or profile". To this end, they held a workshop in which teachers from several Spanish universities participated, in order to share their perceptions and experiences, and thus share the main lines of what students should know to be good operations managers: "The innovative thing was to create a space for the group of teachers to have time to reflect with data, calmly and without filters. The transfer of results is guaranteed thanks to the participation of the 16 professors in the workshop".

In this sense, as he stated in his speech in Olza, "the best teachers are those who do the best they know how to do with the talents they have". Thus, he explained different ways of teaching -asking questions, working on cases, learning by projects...- "They do it perfectly and I try to learn from them", he affirmed. Likewise, recognizing that he does not know exactly what is the magic essence that can be used so that the students learn better, "if we want the students to be, because at the University of Navarra we are lucky that we are teaching our students to be, we have to have an exquisite attention with them when we leave class, to be available, to have the office door open".

In his speech he also made reference letter to the future of teaching, marked by the irruption of Artificial Intelligence, "an ally to go further, not a threat": "I have overcome the fear that it will replace us. Our creativity is based on the experience we have all lived and if AI manages to bring it together, we can do really powerful things". Referring to its impact on the future of teaching, he said that "AI will end up being in all the professions that have no soul, and the official document teaching official document has one, so it will not disappear".