Discurso de investidura como Doctor Honoris Causa del Profesor Anant Remarks

Inauguration speech as Doctor Honoris Causa of Professor Anant Agarwal

February 17th

Thank you for that great introduction. This is an incredible honor, and I’m delighted to be here.

It’s so exciting to participate in such meaningful conversations around open and digital education, and how universal access to knowledge has the power to truly transform lives and to change the world for the better.  
It’s an honor to be awarded this doctorate by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, a leading, innovative public university, and a close edX partner. 
UC3M has been helping to pioneer online learning methods since joining edX in February 2014.

They were the gracious hosts of Open edX last May and a key partner in helping to spread our nonprofit mission, offering access to high quality education and to our high quality open source platform 
I also want to acknowledge and thank Dr. Juan Romo and Dr. Carlos Delgado Kloos for their leadership of the UC3Mx initiative.
UC3M offers over 20 courses in both English and Spanish, and a dual-language Professional Certificate program in Java Programming
UC3M has worked hand in hand with our team to expand the edX mission and increase access to education to our global community of learners, including 234,000 learners in Spain.

It is a privilege to work so closely with UC3M and to partner with an institution that is driven by the same mission as edX - providing high quality education to everyone, everywhere.

Technology is changing our world faster than ever before. The economic gap is widening, political conflicts are increasing, and the future of work is transforming as AI and automation replace large numbers of workers. Reskilling and newskilling take on planet-scale proportions. Unfortunately, educating workers with families to support is not compatible with our legacy campus-based education system. We need to reimagine our education system in order to better adapt to these sweeping changes.

Digital technology will enable low cost education to anyone with a will to learn - and education is the root solution to address these challenges. An educated world is a more peaceful and prosperous world. Digital learning combined with new age credentials will bring life-long education to people that need to be reskilled.

At edX, we see these types of credentials as the future - where learning will become lifelong, delivered in a modular and omnichannel way, and be a mix of on campus and online instruction. This brings education to the people, rather than the other way around, and allows people to learn in shorter chunks to suit their career and lifestyle.

As we strive toward achieving our mission, it is crucial that we continue to innovate and to reimagine education at every step of the way - both on-campus and worldwide! We are especially grateful to the UC3M team for their willingness to participate in the groundbreaking innovations that must take place to meet our shared goals!

UC3M and edX are closely aligned on our visions, and I commend their commitment to online digital education and open learning. I look forward to our future work together! 
Thank you again for this incredible honor.