This Wednesday, September 20, professor António Cruz Serra took office as Rector of Universidade de Lisboa for another 4-year mandate. We met him before the ceremony and he was visibly happy but aware that these following four years will require “a lot of work”. “During this mandate we must consolidate the work we started and I think we are in good conditions to be successful”, said the Rector a few minutes before the ceremony.
Regarding the future, he reaffirmed that “it’s important to strengthen this new university, to enhance research and to promote transfer of knowledge to society. The great challenges will be hiring new faculty and to combat precarity”. One of the biggest challenges for this new mandate, or an “obligation” as Rector likes to call it, is “to build new halls of residence to increase students’ accommodation”, in order to deal with the pressure that exists in Lisbon ’s rental market.
According to the Rector, “this university has better researchers, better professors and thus provide a better education” and “this impacts on ULisboa’s ranking positions, at national and international level”, recalled the professor.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and also by professors, staff and students from the several schools of Universidade de Lisboa.
The president of the General Council, Leonor Beleza, led the solemn ceremony and inducted the Rector for another mandate. “Thank you for being our Rector and thank you for choosing to be our Rector once again”, she started to say. Leonor Beleza highlighted the outstanding work carried out by professor António Cruz Serra and stated that the General Council re-elected the Rector “with absolute certainty”, based “on the remarkable skills and full dedication” of professor António Cruz Serra. The audience applauded effusively.
The rector’s team also took office: professors José Manuel Paixão, Luís Ferreira, António Feijó, João Manuel Barreiros, Eduardo Pereira and Maria Isabel Rocha will assume the position of vice-rectors. Professors Carlos Ribeiro, Vítor Leitão and Maria Teresa Domingues will assume the role of pro-rectors.
