The successive strategic plans developed by the University of Deusto have set milestones, and their mottos have indelibly marked us and developed our defining brand. The firstone had the biblical motto Sapientia melior auro. This foundational motto expressed howpassion for knowledge is the hallmark of both the university and its students, a formof knowlege resulting from the interaction between faith and science. Better than gold.Wisdom can neither be bought or sold.
The second motto stated: The value lies in the individual. Faced with any attempt to useor manipulate, we proclaim the pre-eminent value of the individual, of each individual.We defend the dignity, autonomy, freedom, responsibility and full development of people,and our work seeks to ensure that these values are recognised and promoted within theuniversity and in society as a whole.
The third motto stated: Service and commitment. The university’s mission can only beunderstood by linking it to the society that harbours it, which the university must serve. Anattitude that transcends geographical boundaries and requires thinking and acting in theinterest of the common good at all times. The level of compliance of the Deusto 2018 strategic plan was 80.08%.
All the mottos epitomise a specific, integrated aspect of the University, which reflects thechallenges of each period. Nothing is lost; we recognise our history, it enriches us andreflects what we are. A new plan and motto will bring us together again around our keyvalues and a fresh, purposeful project.
A new impetus: Transforming our world together
This is the ambitious motivational motto that was chosen at the World Assembly of Jesuit Universities (Bilbao 2018). It is now also adopted by the University of Deusto as an inspiration for the 2022 Deusto Initiative: people and institutions transforming the world together.
«Everyone together» is one of our hallmarks. Together as a Deusto university community: students, teaching and research staff, research personnel, administration and services personnel, alumni, families, sharing a single path and project with a whole universe of people, institutions, social organisations, companies, cultural agents ..., generating alliances, networking. We got here together. We shall win the future together.
«Transforming» indicates the purpose of our endeavour; transforming in order to move towards a fairer, more humane and more sustainable world. This is at the core of the university mission and of our challenges: education, research and transfer, leadership and a commitment to society... in order to transform and humanise the world. We want to make a small contribution to a vital task performed by people who transform the world.
«Our world» speaks of universality, both within the Society of Jesus and the universitas that gives us our name and our purpose. Our commitment must have a global dimension, in a world that is interrelated and interdependent. And alongside this global dimension is the local dimension, that of our immediate environment. Global and local are the two faces of today’s world. It is ‘our’ world because we feel we are participants who are jointly responsible for today’s world.