Rector’s Message Dear members of the Academic Community, colleagues, and friends. It is with great pleasure that we, the Governing body of Pro Deo, welcome you to the private official opening of our university. The world is in need of more high quality education. We cannot stress enough the importance of extensive high- quality education for our country and for the rest of the world. As the future demands for competence is changing radically, the versatile and high-standard research and teaching conducted at universities continues to grow in importance, but in a different way than before. Universities are expected to be active, creative, open minded and unbiased, and to take the role of true pioneers. They are certainly not expected to follow others and conform to changes without protest. For this reason, it is not the aim of Pro Deo International, to compete with any existing university, but we aim to complement existing courses and work carried out by other universities. We have already reached a partner agreement with a number of distinguished universities which will allow us to offer a number of courses not available locally as well as to provide a number of courses designed for the modern world. Our students are facing new challenges and we must be prepared not only to help them face these challenges but to give them the necessary knowledge to be able to overcome them. Globalisation, open knowledge and big data, augmented and artificial intelligence, robotics and digitalisation, Crypto currencies, climate change and sustainable development, and the sufficiency of food, water and natural resources in general will bring about significant changes and pose great challenges, faster than we believe. How can human wellbeing and the resilience of our country, Europe and the rest of the world be sustained. We need new thinking and creativity as well as new operational approaches and steadfast political decisions, both at home and abroad. High-quality research and research-based teaching offer solutions and provide our students with solid skills for the future. What is crucial is to build up such expertise and competence which will allow students to continue learning and creating new solutions. Solutions that we have no idea about today. Thus, lifelong learning remains increasingly important. For this aim, it is our belief that we must work closely with other universities to facilitate faculty and student exchange. Alone it is a very uphill struggle but in cooperation with a number of educational institutions working together we can make it easier as well as more cost effective. Our success depends on competence, and we have become internationally recognised as a country with a high level of education. This continues to hold true when we look at the ratio of academically educated people to the entire workforce. But, besides quantity, quality is at least of equal concern: the quality of education, the content of studies as well as teaching and learning methods call for attention. This applies to all forms of education. Genuine cooperation must be undertaken throughout the whole spectrum from early education to doctoral education. Particularly universities and general upper secondary schools need to engage in closer cooperation. The ongoing changes in the world and the various competence needs in the future call for this collaboration. Instead of engaging in mutual competition, our focus should be on productive collaboration. The same is true both at the national as well as at the international levels. Mutual competition for limited national resources does not bring in more funds; instead, we must acquire more international funding, particularly from the EU but also from international foundations. We should also team up with high-quality international partners. All guidelines and solutions that are crucial for the future of the higher education sector must address the increasing global competition for top students. We must use our resources and management expertise to support the development of quality and competitiveness, and focus on existing and emerging strengths and spearhead projects as well as the research infrastructures that promote them. High and broad-based confidence in the willingness and ability of universities to achieve the best possible education outcomes would be desirable and important. To promote all of these important issues, the Board of our University determined the following five themes as the key areas to be developed in the next couple of years. 1. The use of digitalisation 2. International activities and international collaboration 3. Community and equality 4. Quality of learning and employability 5. and the social role and impact of the University. We will continue to work on all the above major issues because their development will take more than 2 years. The themes can and should also guide the development of our university system and the higher education sector as a whole. Collaboration and a sense of community both within the University and with our partners can bring great results and wellbeing for us and others, and help us become true pioneers, the architects of a better future. I wish you all a happy and exciting academic future!