Academic life consists of being a "transformer of the world". This is how María Iraburu, president of the University, defined the ultimate goal of the university professor. Some speak of the "best profession in the world"; and Jaime Nubiola, teacher of teachers at the School of Philosophy y Letras, recently retired, said that the good teacher is the one who knows how to get the best out of each student: the one who is able to "ask for pears from the elm tree". In November, Professor Rodríguez Ibabe of the School of Engineering referred to the life of a university professor as the ascent to a summit.

Regardless of how it is explained, the value of a good teacher during the university stage is unquestionable. Above all, because it is an experience that is always shared. We all have in our minds the figure of that professor who changed our vision of things, who gave us a different approach and, above all, who made us want to know more and more.

Today, in a world plagued by quick answers, it seems that the university - or rather, the university profession - has lost its freshness. But I don't think so. The academic degree program offers exciting and fundamental challenges in today's society.

Always at the forefront. The university travels with suitcases full of knowledge collected over centuries, in a constantly new flight. Innovation is, by definition, university innovation. In academic life, there is no room for "it's always been done this way". Each generation of students brings something new. And the problems of our society offer us continuous challenges.

International DNA. Networks of colleagues in all corners of the world with a common interest. That detail that improves a law..., that slight modification in a particle that could mean the great change in Medicine..., that intuition that can solve a great global problem... Professors from other cultures, with different traditions but sharing the same essence: to be academics, to search for the truth.

Service to society. There is no greater satisfaction than that email from a former student who now tells you how he still remembers one of your classes or that committee you gave him in a status hurry in his life. Even if it is just one person, it is not little.

"The University is not only a way of life, but a way of being in the world", explained Ricardo Piñero, Full Professor of Aesthetics of the School of Philosophy y Letras in the first edition of the event "Talento Académico: la vida universitaria como degree program profesional" (Academic Talent: university life as a professional ). This is what it is all about: consciously exercising this way of being in the world that is especially relevant to university professors.

Next Thursday, February 29, at the University's headquarters in Madrid, we will continue talking about this. About the power of teaching and research to serve society. Of how study can change lives. You are all invited, "transformers of the world".