On 15 April, Cristina Uriarte, Minister of Education, Nekane Balluerka, Rector of the University of the Basque Country, Jose Maria Guibert, Rector of the University of Deusto, and Bixente Atxa, Rector of Mondragon University, met. This videoconference meeting continued the meetings held between the university officials and the minister, accompanied by members of their groups and the Unibasq agency, since the decision to suspend the previous schools.

At the meeting, the Minister of Education and the Rector discussed the current situation and signed a joint statement at the end (the statement is attached to this post). In the face of the current health emergency situation, they have agreed to focus efforts on the following priorities:

• Focus on the health crisis and people in the university context, prioritizing the health and safety of the university community.
•  Completing the 2019-2020 academic year, focusing on distance learning, using distance learning methodologies for emergencies and prioritizing learning outcomes and skills at all times, in the manner formulated in the qualifications, with the best possible quality standards.
• Ensure that the expected learning outcomes in previous experimental activities and external internships are achieved to a reasonable extent. To this end, universities will be able to assess a number of options, such as reprogramming these subjects when the limits on prior activity are removed; complement internships with alternative training methodologies, where possible; or recognition of unusual professional activities.
• Allow some face-to-face academic activities to be proposed in the context of planning to gradually return to university activity, taking care of the health and safety of the university community, for specific cases where it is impossible to carry out this activity in a remote mode.
•  To alleviate the additional difficulties of students with special difficulties in the normal use of distance university training due to socio-economic, technological or other conditions.
• Maintain the planned academic calendar, except in the case of exceptions related to the presentation of Bachelor's Thesis, Master's Thesis and Doctoral Thesis, as well as for basic internships, in an effort to ensure the proper academic development of students.
• To guarantee the quality of the Basque university academic offer and the university institutions that make up the Basque University System, and in particular, the quality of dual and disabling training in the context of an emergency situation.
• Strengthen the Basque university ecosystem in the field of distance learning and in anticipation and planning of responses to potential future emergencies.
• Thanks to the university community

The Basque Government, the UPV / EHU, the University of Deusto, Mondragon Unibertsitatea and Unibasq uniquely recognize and appreciate the work and adaptation efforts of the entire university community: supervisors, professors, AZP, students and the main university mission. in training, the agents that help.

On the other hand, the strong collaboration with business agents has ensured the achievement of the learning outcomes of the dual training offer. A variety of situations have occurred; a large percentage of students have been able to continue learning in the telework modality, another part has been redirected to other companies, and so on. Student tutoring in general, both on the part of teachers and companies, has been maintained.

Extending institutional accreditation to the Basque University System is a key element of Basque universities. This quality assurance model, based on co-operation between actors, is a feature that is widespread and unique in the Basque University System. Unibasq - The Quality Agency of the Basque University System will work to strengthen its own model of institutional accreditation, in a way that responds even more to the uniqueness of the Basque system.

The 2019-2022 University System Plan is a strong and flexible tool, and its main objective is to help strengthen the universities in the Basque University System. Monitoring committees have been convened to study the changes to be made to the 2019-2022 Plan, to deal with this health crisis and to strengthen the Basque University System in the form of distance education.

The Government, the universities and Unibasq agree on the need to continue cooperating, respecting the powers of the Department of Education in the field of university policy, respecting the autonomy of universities and the independence of the Unibasq agency. The Basque university ecosystem has shown strength, flexibility and the ability to respond to the emergency, acting responsibly, with confidence and in collaboration with all stakeholders.