The Santander Group will hold its annual General Assembly, hosted by the University of Porto, Portugal, from on 4 and 5 June 2010. The central theme of this General Assembly will be Santander Group 2020: Sustainable Universities and Networks.

The main aim is to enhance the Santander Group Network’s future reflecting on Sustainability and on ways to move the Santander Group forward in a period of continuing and substantial change both in the global context for higher education and research and in the ways in which universities react to these changes.

Three important questions arising from this situation were addressed:

• How does the experience of the Sustainability of higher education over the last decade provide us with insight into educational directions and priorities for the next ten years?
• What do such changes imply for Santander Group universities?
• Setting out a structured set of different scenarios which options do we have for the Group?

Porto is Portugal's second city and the capital of the Norte region. It is, along with Lisbon, one of Portugal's two global cities. Being the largest city in the region, it is considered its economic and cultural heart.

Porto has several institutions of higher education, the largest one being the state-managed University of Porto (Universidade do Porto), which is the largest Portuguese university with approximately 28,000 students.

Programme
For a downloadable version of the programme click here.

Registration form

All the participants are invited to fill out THIS REGISTRATION FORM as well as the online registration form in attached and send it back to the following email: sgadmin@sgroup.be

Accommodation

The accommodation will be at the Hotel Fenix Porto, Rua Gono Sampaio, 282 - 4150-365 Porto, Portugal.
Click here for more information on the hotel.

How to get to the Hotel from the airport?
The University of Porto will have two small vans (6/8 places) available for transportation from the airport to the Hotel.

By Metro
When you exit customs at the Porto airport, follow the signs to the Porto metro. The Porto metro’s new violet line takes visitors right from Porto airport to the city center. The metro ride takes around 45 minutes and costs 1.30EUR. You can buy a metro ticket or Andante Card at the machines in the tunnel below the train platform. The closest metro stop to the Hotel Fenix is “CASA DA MÚSICA” (about 500m walking distance).

By Taxi
A taxi from Porto airport to the city center costs 20-25EUR. The amount of time it takes to get from the airport to the city varies depending on traffic.

Location of the Event

The conference will take place at the Rectory of the U.Porto’s building. It his very easy to get there as it is placed in the city center, very close to the emblematic Tower of Clérigos. The address is:
Praça Gomes Teixeira, 4099-002 Porto.
Click here for more information on the location.

For more information about the city, please click here.