A delegation from the Education Committee of the Parliament of Navarra visited the University of Navarra today, where they were received by Rector Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero and other members of the Rector's Office. The event was an opportunity for the academic institution to inform the Legislative about its situation and future plans. Professor Sánchez-Tabernero stressed that the aspiration of the center is "to be a university rooted in Navarra and attractive to people from other places".

The visit consisted of a briefing in the Amigos Building, the latest to open its doors on campus, and a tour of the works at Museo Universidad de Navarra, which will be inaugurated in January 2015. The rector has informed the parliamentarians that the ideal number of students at the University is around 12,000 students, "as we want to avoid overcrowding and treat each person individually". This year the University has 11,180 students: 9,000 of them are undergraduate students, 1,000 are doctoral students and the rest are in other postgraduate programs.

Sánchez-Tabernero recalled the phrase of the founder of the University, St. Josemaría Escrivá, who from the beginning of the center in 1952 expressed his desire that "no student should stop coming for lack of money," to explain that the students of the University receive a total of almost 27 million euros in scholarships, coming both from the University (some 16 million) and from public and private institutions.

At present, more than 5,000 people work in the different centers of the University and the Clinic. The Rector explained the university's firm commitment to research, both in the scientific field and in the humanities and social sciences. He mentioned in particular the Tropical Health Institute, "which researches diseases prevalent in developing countries, affecting people with few resources, such as Malaria, Dengue and Leishmaniasis".

In addition to these data, the Rectorate team told the parliamentarians about this year's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Chair of Basque Language and Culture, the creation of the Tantaka Solidarity Time Bank -which has involved almost 3.3,000 students and professionals of the University- and the expansion plans in Madrid, which include the construction of a 60-bed clinic and a postgraduate campus for 400 or 450 students aimed at meeting a growing demand from professionals working in Madrid and to "reinforce the University's reputation in the capital, so that it also reinforces its structure and activity in Navarra".

The visit ended with a tour of the Museum, which the architect Rafael Moneo will deliver in a few weeks, and which from January 2015 will be "the gateway to the campus" and "the hub of the university's cultural activity", in the words of the rector.