Science and Universities

The graduation ceremony for the third promotion of young people who have been able to join the Prometeus programme was held today in the Saló de Cent hall of Barcelona City Council. The ceremony, presided over by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, saw the graduation of fifteen students who entered this programme, promoted by the Pla de Barris in collaboration with Barcelona Science and Universities, when they were still secondary school pupils. All were able to successfully complete their university studies.

At today’s event, Jaume Collboni congratulated them on behalf of the city. “You represent the Barcelona we want to be: a city where young people can go wherever they want to go, regardless of their origins or neighbourhood, overcoming inequalities. A city that believes that plurality and diversity is a strength and a richness”. “It has been shown that boys and girls from all the neighbourhoods of Barcelona, from Raval to La Verneda, from Ciutat Meridiana to Torre Baró or Prosperitat, have and deserve all the support of the city and will have everything they have dreamed of for their future”, added the Mayor.

Collboni recalled that “the fight against inequality begins in the classroom” and that “the best investment we can make as a city and as a country is in our education system”. “Reports come out that speak of the shortcomings and challenges in the education system. Prometeus is an example of the opposite of the clichés that exist about educational reports: equal opportunities are possible, they are real and there are no labels, prejudices or excuses”, he said, addressing the new engineers, humanists, pedagogues, historians or experts in business management and administration.

Prometeus is a community programme that started in the Raval neighbourhood and aims to ensure that all students from public secondary schools in neighbourhoods with a lower than average number of university students can access university and successfully pursue higher education, regardless of economic and social conditions. The success of the programme in the Raval has meant that in recent years it has been extended to other neighbourhoods in the city, promoted by the Pla de Barris and in collaboration with Barcelona Science and Universities, becoming one of the key programmes in the educational field, and thanks to a network of organisations, educational and social agents and volunteers.

Since it began in 2016 in the Raval neighbourhood, it has grown from two to the current eight high schools participating in the programme and is now present in seven Barcelona neighbourhoods. This project has accompanied and continues to accompany 300 students, of whom 220 are university students and 80 are in transition, studying higher education.

This academic year 2023-2024 is by far the year with the highest number of students joining the programme: a total of 92 young people, 80% more than last year. It is also the year with the most direct access to university: 54 young people, 42% more than last year. As for the first three promotions of Prometeus young people, that is to say, those who have already completed their university studies, there are a total of 37, including the 15 who are celebrating their recent graduation today. In this last promotion, students from outside the Raval area are graduating for the first time, specifically three students from IES Picasso, in the North Zone of Nou Barris.

How Prometeus works

The programme has a professional team that accompanies the students, and a financial endowment that responds to specific needs in terms of transport and academic reinforcement or material, among others. This personalised accompaniment begins at secondary school, with motivational talks, and continues beyond university graduation.

At the end of the University Entrance Exams (PAU), they receive support in the transition process towards university, which includes enrolment and the application for public grants. Throughout the years of their university studies, they are also accompanied, in close collaboration with the universities, with the aim of successfully completing their studies. They also receive support in the last phase of the programme, access to the world of work, with the collaboration, among others, of Barcelona Activa. In this phase, the programme has found that almost all Prometeus young people find work within a short period of time, very often linked to their field of knowledge.

The Prometeus network

The actors involved in the Prometeus programme network are: the Asociació Educativa Integral del Raval (AEI Raval), the Diario del Raval, the Association Fondation Étudiante Pour la Ville (AFEV) -student foundation association for the city-, the University of Barcelona (UB), the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona (UPC), the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the high-schools Milà i Fontanals, Miquel Taradell, Bernat Metge, Pablo R. Picasso, Flos i Calcat, Barcelona Congreso and Consell de Cent and Besòs neighbourhood, as well as the Barcelona Education Consortium and Barcelona City Council, in this case through the Neighbourhood Plan, the Department of Science and Universities, and the districts of Ciutat Vella, Sant Martí and Nou Barris.

Apart from the aforementioned schools, the Prometeus programme has also been extended to areas beyond the Neighbourhood Plan, such as Barceloneta (Joan Salvat-Papasseit high-school), in this case by the Ciutat Vella district, or outside the city, such as Manlleu (Antoni Pous i Argila high-school), with the support of its town council, with which a collaboration agreement has been signed today. Or even beyond Catalonia, as in the case of Pamplona (Julio Caro Baroja and Plaza de la Cruz institutes), supported by the Government of Navarre and the Public University of Navarre (UPN). In all these cases, the deployment of the programme has been carried out with the close collaboration of Prometeus Barcelona.