La Salle Campus Barcelona, a founding member of the Universitat Ramon Llull that integrates seven areas of knowledge, has received the international seal of 'Entrepreneurial University' awarded by the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (ACEEU), becoming the first university in Catalonia and the third in Spain to receive this accreditation.
To achieve this rcognition, La Salle Campus Barcelona has presented evidence of its achievements in the fifteen ACEEU entrepreneurship accreditation standards, fulfilling excellence in seven of them: Institutional Commitment; Shared Goals; Leadership; Culture; Internal Support Structures; Service Alignment; and Education. The ACEEU is a global entity that evaluates and accredits the merits of higher education centers in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, and that grants the quality seal of entrepreneurial university through an evaluation process based on standards developed by experts in the field of university-business relations, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship.
The General Director of La Salle Campus Barcelona, Josep M. Santos, values this recognition: “We educate students so that they are no strangers to injustice, encouraging them to respond in an entrepreneurial and innovative way to global challenges. We focus on knowledge transfer and promote technology-based entrepreneurship through La Salle Technova Barcelona, our innovation park, which acts as our connection center for startups, investors and corporations within the framework of our entrepreneurial university. Achieving this great milestone, obtaining ACEEU accreditation as an Entrepreneurial University, reinforces our mission and the values we have.”
For his part, Professor Thorsten Kliewe, President of the ACEEU Council, states: “At ACEEU we want to promote a more transformative approach to higher education through an entrepreneurial approach. La Salle Campus Barcelona is making an important contribution by having entrepreneurship in its culture, in its values, in its strategic public commitment. “They contribute to the economic development of the industry and the region in a unique way, and are a model of business focus.” La Salle-URL has gone through a four-phase process, including a self-assessment and a peer review visit, before being granted ‘Entrepreneurial University’ status by the Accreditation Council.
To formalize the accreditation, Josep M. Piqué, the Executive President of La Salle Technova, the innovation park on campus, traveled to Lisbon and took part in an event in which he was honored and excited to of this recognition: "I am incredibly honored to receive the official accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (ACEEU) on behalf of La Salle Campus Barcelona. This recognition highlights our commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation within our academic community."
La Salle Campus Barcelona has entrepreneurship, innovation and applied research in its DNA, and encourages constant interaction between students and companies. Faithful to its mission of training professionals with values capable of transforming society, it promotes the development of social and humanistic sensitivity in its students and transversal collaboration between its areas of knowledge. The ACEEU accreditation places La Salle Campus Barcelona among the best universities in the world in entrepreneurship, evidencing the university's excellence in the efforts of its third mission.
