Josep M. Garrel elected EUA president, to lead new board

The European University Association (EUA) is pleased to announce that Josep M. Garrell will be its next President. He was elected this morning at the EUA General Assembly in Gdańsk, and will succeed Michael Murphy, former President of University College Cork, who has served in the role since 2019. 

From 2012 to 2022, Professor Garrell served as Rector of Ramon Llull University, in Barcelona. He previously held several leadership roles at the university, including Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation, Secretary General and Vice-Rector for University Policy. He is also a former Vice-President of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE). He holds a doctorate in electronic engineering from Ramon Llull University.

Professor Garrell was elected to the EUA Board in 2019, having represented CRUE at the EUA Council from 2016 to 2019. In his role as a Board member, many of his activities have focused on topics related to governance, autonomy and funding. Indeed, he has served as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the recent update to EUA’s Autonomy Scorecard and as institutional coordinator of the “Innovative Leadership and Change Management in Higher Education” (NEWLEAD) project.

Professor Garrell will take up the role on 1 July 2023, following the conclusion of Michael Murphy’s mandate. The EUA President serves a four-year term and chairs the EUA Board, which is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Association's policy and the planning of its activities.

Following the election of Josep M. Garrell, EUA’s membership also elected new Board members:

• Vincent Blondel, Rector, University of Louvain (Belgium)
• Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Rector, Stockholm University (Sweden)
• Maurizio Tira, former Rector, University of Brescia (Italy)
• Wim van de Donk, Rector, Tilburg University (the Netherlands)

and re-elected one sitting Board member for another term:

• Marcin Pałys, former Rector, University of Warsaw (Poland)

The elected Board members will join Paul Boyle (Swansea University), Anne Lequy (Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences) and Ivanka Popović (University of Belgrade), whose terms continue until 2025. They succeed Martine Rahier (University of Neuchâtel), Patrick Lévy (University Grenoble-Alpes) and Francesco Ubertini (University of Bologna), as well as President-elect Josep M. Garrell.

The EUA General Assembly was held in advance of the Association’s 2023 Annual Conference – “We need to talk about impact,” hosted by Gdańsk University of Technology.

This article was first published on 20 April by EUA.