António Branco will not re-apply for a second term as Rector of the University of Algarve. In a statement sent this Wednesday, the 31st, to the academic community, the rector invoked "personal reasons" for this decision, but also says that he has considered internal and external dimensions to the academy, about which he has expressed a "critical opinion."
In the document, António Branco writes that his decision was taken after having analyzed «the internal, external and personal factors» and that he makes it public «from now on because I consider that I should give time to all those who, eventually, were waiting for the my decision to seek and find the best institutional leadership solutions for the next term».
The rector of the University of Algarve says that he imagined “the next four years of my life” and realized that “the desire to teach and research had become too strong and that this is what my body and spirit insistently ask of me”.
Therefore, continues António Branco, “it has become clearer that I do not have the personal conditions to propose to renew for another four years the commitment assumed with the institution in December 2013”.
Regarding the internal and external factors that he analyzed to make this decision, António Branco says: «I have expressed my critical opinion about them and will continue to do so, based on the experience I gained about our way of functioning and our characteristics internal, public policies related to Higher Education, the international panorama, namely the European one, which dictates many of these policies according to the options I disagree with».
António Branco also thanks “to all those who, inside and outside the University, preferred me to re-apply and who, over the last few months, made me feel”.
The rector clarifies that the mandate will only end with the inauguration of the new rector in December and that, therefore, he will continue "to fully exercise, until that moment, the competences entrusted to me".
For this electoral act, António Branco expresses the desire that it will be “serene and democratic, but also alive and collectively aware. And, although this responsibility rests exclusively with the General Council, the truth is that its internal members do so as representatives of the bodies of the institution».
Branco guarantees that he will not abdicate "from actively participating in the electoral process that will take place after the summer", but "more distantly, as expected from the University's rector, but no less attentive and committed to contributing to the common good."
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