On 28 January, the Office for Cooperation and Sustainable Development organised the award ceremony for the 4th edition of the TFG and TFM Awards on human rights, sustainability and social action, an initiative created to recognise the best bachelor’s and master’s degree final projects aligned with the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Held as part of the Feast of St Thomas Aquinas celebrations, the event brought together students, teaching staff and members of the university community to showcase academic research with a social impact and the students’ commitment to today’s major global challenges.

The ceremony was presided over by Esther Jiménez, vice-rector for Students and Sustainability, who welcomed the attendees and praised the efforts of the University’s Office for Sustainability and Cooperation, as well as the importance of promoting initiatives of this kind that encourage the study of innovative and sustainable proposals. “At UIC Barcelona, we are committed to academic excellence, with a strong focus on serving society and making a real impact,” explained the vice-rector.

The award for the best Bachelor’s Degree Final Project (TFG) went to Sara Barragán Triviño, an undergraduate Psychology student, who gave a brief overview of her project “Empathy Among Health Sciences Students: Are there differences between degree programmes?”, which examined differences in empathy across the various Health Sciences degrees. The results revealed striking differences, with Nursing and Psychology students exhibiting higher levels of empathy than those in the other degree programmes. These findings underscore the importance of promoting empathy as a cross-disciplinary competence in health education, in efforts to foster more compassionate and higher quality care.

As for the best Master’s Degree Final Project (TFM), the winner was Caitlan Harvey-Grogan, a student from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s Master’s Degree in Biodigital Architecture, with a project entitled “Building the Future: How Bio-Digital Architecture Informed by Posthumanist Philosophy Can Support Human and Non-Human Flourishing”. The project explores ways in which architecture can be adapted to respect both people and other forms of life in the face of climate change, urban expansion and biodiversity loss. It is a proposal that illustrates how architecture can foster social equality and coexistence between species.

With this fourth edition of the Awards, UIC Barcelona reasserts its commitment to a university education that promotes research with a social impact, sustainability and the protection of human rights.