Around 100 students gathered in the Plaça Cívica at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) on Friday 2 October to protest during the opening ceremony for the 2026–27 academic year, according to Llibertat.cat.
The demonstration, called by UAB faculty assemblies, took place while Núria Montserrat, the Generalitat's Minister for Research and Universities, attended the ceremony. For UAB students, the protest focused on the conditions in which they study and live, including access to housing and what the assemblies described as underfunding in public education and public services.
UAB had scheduled the ceremony in its Rectorate auditorium, the university's central administrative building, with an opening lecture by the US translator and cultural diplomat Mary Ann Newman. The university said the event also formally opened the academic year for the Catalan university system.
March to the Rectorate
The protest began with the reading of a manifesto in Plaça Cívica, the central square on the Bellaterra campus. Protesters also burned a logo of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC), the Catalan Socialist Party, symbolically and displayed a banner from a building in the square.
They then marched to the entrance of the Rectorate. Llibertat.cat reported tense moments as demonstrators stood in front of a private-security cordon while chants could be heard inside the building.
“We refuse to let the privatisers and marketisers of our education, who are responsible for public education being in precarious conditions, have a presence on our campus.”A student reading the final manifesto after the minister had left the Rectorate, as reported by Llibertat.cat
The faculty assemblies ended the mobilisation after returning to Plaça Cívica. UAB has dedicated the 2026–27 academic year to Catalan culture, with Newman’s inaugural lecture entitled Catalan Culture Without Borders.
Reported by llibertat.cat, UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB, vhir.vallhebron.com, rosa mari, directa.cat, cgtbarcelona.org, educaweb.cat, ddd.uab.cat, uab.cat.
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