On February XXth, the Socrates Educa International School Salou held an homage event for Dr. Gabriel Ferraté i Pascual, with the participation of students from 3rd grade to BAT/IB. The event served to recognize the figure and the work of the honorary president of the International Foundation Socrates Educa and ideologist of the pedagogical project Socrates Educa, who passed away on February 11th.
The school director, Jonathan Day; the head of the pedagogical project, Hermínia Martí, and the general director of the Foundation, Jaume Vilella, took advantage of their speeches to talk about the wisdom and future vision of Ferraté, which led him to develop revolutionary and innovative projects, such as "our school, an international school, different, from the 21st century towards the 22nd century." But he was not only the driving force behind SEIS, he also conceived and founded the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the first international distance university.
A lover of challenges and quality education, Dr. Ferraté led a teaching project, innovative and pre-university, until conceiving what we now know as Socrates Educa. The beginnings, the development of the school, and its educational project were central in the speeches of the tribute event to someone who also held the position of Director General of Research Universities and Director General of Scientific Policy at the then Ministry of Education.
Before that, Gabriel Ferraté was the rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona, a position to which he was elected four more times and for 16 consecutive years. He was also a member of the executive committee of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), director of the Institute of Cybernetics, and vice-president of the Interdepartmental Council for Research and Technological Innovation (CIRIT), as well as being president of the Institut Cerdà and a member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, and the Centre de Lectura de Reus. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universitat Politècnica de Madrid and by the Universitat de Lleida. In 1996, he received the Creu de Sant Jordi and in 2017, the UOC awarded him the Medal of Honor, the highest distinction of the university. He also served as president of Caixa Tarragona between 1995 and 2010. Finally, he was the founding patron of the Fundació Escola Internacional del Camp, of which he was the second president and currently its honorary president since the academic year 22/23.
In honoring his mastery, the Foundation will continue to fight committed to the territory, education, and the idea of achieving a better society and future through education, which he has helped transform like few others.
