It is a great satisfaction for me to be able to satisfy the commitment made with the Society of Gran Canaria by presenting the Institutional, designed to meet the demands of modern Society on the University which we considered to be of prime importance in our mandate.

Our rapidly changing Society demands of us that we adapt constantly to the emerging processes. In an ever more competitive world, this plan is an attempt to design strategies which will allow our university to be up among the leaders in the next few years, with an open business structure which incorporates all of the technological advances available.

This document, then, is a tool which will allow us to work towards even greater prestige as a University in teaching, research and services to the community. Our desire is to form fully educated people who are capable of spreading their know-how to the furthest spread corners of Europe, America and Africa and promoting the socio-economic development of our Archipelago. This document and the trategies contained within the same will allow us to tread firmly and confidently towards our goals.

The Plan by Strategies is directed along four basic lines (teaching, research, management and services and social impact) which will serve as the guidelines along which we direct all our efforts over the next few years. Our goals or the challenges faced by our institution are thus broken down into component strategies. The degree to which we fulfil our goals will depend upon the degree to which we implement these
component strategies which, thanks to a constant monitoring process and mechanisms of evaluation, will be adapted or not according to our experience and whether they allow us to fulfil our aspirations.

The Plan by Strategies encompasses the bases of the of the Conference of European Vice-Chancellors, the guidelines of the University Board of Government and the University Senate, together with the commitments undersigned in the II Contract-Programme with the Autonomous Government of the Canary Islands for the period 2001-2004, and , as such, will structure all budget expenditure over the next few financial years.

We are about to embark on the voyage itself and we need to concentrate all of our efforts towards reaching our destination step by step, strategy by strategy, implementing and monitoring our progress with the Institutional Plan by Strategies.We need the participation of all the university community, for them not only to do their job well but to be first in their fields using, to that end, the experience accumulated in the Past.

My final words are of thanks to the people who have made this project possible and to those who, with their dedication and know-how have shown us the roads to follow to reach our future goals.