USC Upstate Inks Agreement with Spanish University

With the stroke of a pen, Chancellor Brendan B. Kelly, Ph.D. on Wednesday completed the effort to build a collaborative relationship between the University of South Carolina Upstate and the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria Madrid, in Spain.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding was part of a day-long visit by two UFV Madrid representatives who traveled to USC Upstate to present Kelly with the Memorandum of Understanding: Mariano Castaneira Valente, a member of the advisory board of UFV Madrid’s Excellens Program; and Dr. Guillermo Arce, vice dean for international development, UFV Business & Law School.

“For us, this is quite a special day,” Valente told the group of faculty and administrators gathered for the signing ceremony. “Our university has for many years been specializing in building bridges with universities around the world. … We feel that Spain has this (opportunity for) reaching out. We are a tiny little country in Europe, but I think we’ve been around quite a bit, so we feel at home reaching out and establishing these things, particularly with (schools) like yours where we know we share a lot of the vision and founding values, and particularly this vocation for internationalization.”

Kelly noted the age difference between the two collaborating schools, and the value of the partnership for both institutions.

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