Strengthen the connection between disciplines, bring students closer to clinical practice from day one, and articulate health training in the same environment. These are the objectives of UIC Barcelona with UIC BCN Health, the umbrella under which it groups seven disciplines in the biosanitary field. These are Bioengineering, Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Psychology, Dentistry, and Physiotherapy.This ecosystem unfolds on the Sant Cugat campus, integrated into the General University Hospital of Catalonia. There, health studies coexist with three own university clinics, a reference hospital network, and the Advanced Simulation Integral Centre, a space of more than 1,000 square meters that allows students to carry out simulated practices in a real clinical environment from the beginning of their training.More practical experience

The university argues that this model seeks to combine academic learning with guided and safe practical experience, always with the accompaniment of active professionals. Furthermore, UIC BCN Health also concentrates research laboratories in Biomedicine and Bioengineering, gyms for Physiotherapy and healthcare facilities such as the University Dental Clinic, the Support psychology and psychiatry clinic, and Cuides UIC Barcelona, focused on the care of advanced diseases and palliative care.The rector of the university, Alfonso Méndiz, maintains that UIC BCN Health is a “differentiating, clear and solid” proposal built on “almost thirty years of experience” and on an academic offering integrated into its own ecosystem. UIC Barcelona is also approaching its 30th anniversary and twenty years of Medical studies.Three new master's degrees in health

UIC Barcelona's commitment to strengthening its health ecosystem is also reflected in the expansion of its postgraduate offering. For the next academic year, the university will incorporate three new master's degrees linked to this field, with different profiles and approaches but with the same objective: to delve into increasingly specialized areas connected with the new needs of the healthcare sector.  The first of the new programs is the university master's degree in Respiratory and Cardiac Physiotherapy, aimed at both active professionals and researchers. According to the university, the program aims to respond to the growing demand for highly qualified physiotherapists in the comprehensive management of adult, pediatric, and critically ill patients, and emphasizes intervention in situations of great respiratory and cardiac complexity.  The new offer also incorporates the Master's degree in International Continuing Education in Bioethics and Healthcare Professionalism. In this case, the proposal is aimed at healthcare professionals and graduates who carry out their activity in care, research, or training environments. The program seeks to reinforce reflection and preparation on ethical and professional issues within clinical and clinical training contexts.  The third launch is the Master's degree in Bioinformatics & AI for Healthcare, driven by Biomedical Sciences and taught entirely in English. The university presents it as a unique program because it combines bioinformatics and artificial intelligence applied to health in a single proposal, two areas that increasingly weigh more in biomedical research and in the transformation of healthcare services.  

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When a supermarket receives fresh fruit first thing in the morning, a factory avoids halting production due to a lack of components, or a hospital has the necessary materials at the right moment, behind it all there is often invisible but decisive work: logistics. In recent years, this field has ceased to be a secondary component to become a key element of the global economy and a profession with ever-increasing strategic weight within companies.In Catalonia, this shift has been accompanied by a growing offer of master's degrees and postgraduate courses linked to logistics and the supply chain. This is the case, for example, of the master's degree in Supply Chain Management and Technology at La Salle URL; the online master's degree in Logistics Management at the UOC; the master's degree in Supply Chain Management, Technology and Sustainability at UPF-BSM; the master's degree in Logistics, Supply Chain and Maritime Business at TecnoCampus, or programs such as the master's degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management that the UAB promotes within an international consortium, among others. This long list of degrees reflects the extent to which the sector has ceased to be a peripheral specialization to consolidate itself as its own training field, increasingly connected with technology, sustainability, and global business management.An increasingly complete profile

“Before the pandemic, logistics was a more invisible area in the company, almost always in the background”, Concha Gaudó, director of the master’s degree in Supply Chain Management and Technology at La Salle Campus Barcelona, points out to ARA. As she explains, the disruptions of recent years, from covid to geopolitical uncertainty, have placed the supply chain “at the center of strategic decisions for many organizations”, and this has also transformed the type of professionals that are in demand.

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University of Barcelona (UB)

Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)

Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC)

Open University of Catalonia (UOC)

International University of Catalonia (UIC)

University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC)

Pompeu Fabra University (UPF)

Blanquerna - Ramon Llull University (Blanquerna-URL)

Expand the offering with new courses related to business, technology, engineering, and international law. IQS incorporates the Master's in Accounting, Data Analytics, and ESG Reporting, focused on advanced accounting, data analysis, and sustainability reporting. La Salle adds programs in Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence for Business Management, and Acoustics, Audio, and Vibrations. Esade, for its part, incorporates the university master's degree in International Business Law, designed for legal specialization in global business environments.

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Update without having to take a full master's degree. Redirect your professional career without starting from scratch. Certify a specific competence and be able to include it in your curriculum. These are some of the particularities offered by university micro-credentials, a brief, flexible, and labor market-oriented training formula that is gaining ground in Catalonia and that universities are beginning to integrate into their offerings. According to the search engine for training offered with public funds from the microcreds.cat Plan, there are currently 468 micro-credentials offered in Catalonia, with proposals ranging from artificial intelligence, programming, or web development to the fields of health, architecture, or project management.“Micro-credentials offer the opportunity to certify more specifically the competencies demanded by the labor market”, explain Dr. Marcelo Maina, director of the master's degree in Education and ICT - e-learning at the UOC, and Dr. Lourdes Guàrdia, vice-dean of the Studies of Psychology and Educational Sciences. According to them, this formula responds to a growing need: to be able to update knowledge and skills quickly, flexibly, and compatibly with work or other daily responsibilities.A brief, focused, and cumulative format

But what exactly are university micro-credentials? Broadly speaking, they are short-term training programs, delivered and certified by universities, that allow for the accreditation of specific skills. They are designed for adults, whether they already have a higher education qualification or not, and aim to facilitate access to more flexible, specialized training connected to the real needs of the productive and social fabric.The duration ranges between 25 and 375 hours, with official academic recognition of up to 15 ECTS credits. Unlike other longer programs, they do not necessarily start from a closed itinerary, but rather allow for the acquisition of specific knowledge in very concrete areas. "They aim to certify the learning outcomes of short-term learning experiences, presenting the knowledge, skills, and competencies that have been developed," explain Maina and Guàrdia. Furthermore, they are accumulable: students can add micro-credentials over time and thus build a training path adapted to their professional needs. Another key element is digital certification. The acquired competencies are accredited in a secure, verifiable, and transferable format within the European sphere.

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A worker looks at the salary of their last payslip and wonders how they can move up to a higher category. A recent graduate chains together their first jobs and looks for a specialization that will open new doors for them. A professional with years of experience notices that their sector has changed and that they need to update themselves. The reasons for studying a master's degree are not always the same, but they often share a common underlying idea: to improve their professional position in an increasingly demanding job market.Data indicates that choosing to pursue a master's degree can be a key way to achieve this. Currently, 93.5% of master's degree holders are employed, according to the study The employment of master's graduates from Catalan universities, prepared by the Agency for the Quality of the University System of Catalonia (AQU Catalunya). Furthermore, more than six out of ten perform functions specifically related to the master's degree studied, and a significant portion of those who were already working before taking the course assure that they have improved their professional category, salary, or type of contract.The weight of these studies within the Catalan university system is also relevant. This academic year, Catalan universities are offering 702 master's degrees, involving around 50,000 students, a figure that positions this training as a central piece of university specialization and lifelong learning. 'We want a university system that is a lever for progress and a social elevator, capable of offering opportunities to everyone so that no talent is left behind for economic reasons,' defended the Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, at the inauguration of the academic year, which is now drawing to a close.Looking ahead to the 2026-27 academic year, the Department of Research and Universities is working on around eighty new projects encompassing degrees, master's programs, and doctoral programs, many still in the authorization process. As of now, at least 16 university master's programs have already been authorized. The planning is particularly focused on strategic and emerging sectors, such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, ICT, health, engineering, or film arts. The Department also plans to update several existing degrees and master's programs to adapt their content to new professional demands.Master's degrees: a source of progress and opportunities

One of the clearest pieces of data is the professional improvement declared by people who were already working before taking the master's degree. According to AQU Catalunya, 65.6% have improved their professional category and 64.6% have a higher salary than before obtaining the degree. There is also an impact on working conditions: 52.1% have improved their type of contract and 45.2% have improved their dedication or working hours. This does not mean that the master's degree automatically guarantees a promotion, but the data does show a clear relationship between specializing and progressing professionally.However, for this path of progress to be truly effective, price is also a determining factor. Along these lines, the Department has equalized the cost of all public qualifying degrees and master's degrees with the lowest price and has applied a new reduction of 30% for the rest of non-qualifying master's degrees.Jobs more linked to training

Another argument in favor of master's degrees is the alignment between studies and work. According to the AQU Catalunya report, 64% of graduates perform specific functions related to the master's they have completed. The percentage rises to 86% if functions related to their previous university degree are also included. In other words: in most cases, the master's degree is not just a credential disconnected from daily professional life, but rather has a direct translation into the tasks that are ultimately assumed.This adaptation is especially relevant at a time when many people are not only looking for a job, but also for a job that is more aligned with their profile, interests, and professional expectations. In fact, the same study shows that overall job satisfaction among master's graduates is rated as notable, with an average score of 8 out of 10. The key, however, is not to take any master's degree, but to choose training aligned with the professional moment, the sector, and the skills demanded by the labor market.

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Since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, which altered the usual functioning of classes, attendance at Catalan universities has been weakening. However, since university education is not compulsory, there is no official data on this type of absenteeism. Now, however, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has published the first report by a public university on this phenomenon, which concludes that 40% of its student community does not attend class in some subjects.

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Imagine a university asking students to submit a written assignment about reading a book. Many submit it. Few have read it. All pass the course. The system works, some would say. I would say the system pretends to work, which is not the same. Something similar happens with the gender equality plans that Horizon Europe (the European Commission's 2021-2027 research funding program) requires research centers and universities to have as a condition for accessing European funding.For the first time in the history of European research framework programmes, having an equality plan in force is a requirement. For this plan, the Commission set 4 mandatory elements: a public document signed by management, dedicating resources to it, sex and gender disaggregated data, and training for staff. And, in parallel, it recommended addressing 5 areas: work-life balance, equity in leadership, equality in hiring and professional careers, the integration of the gender perspective in research and teaching, and measures against gender-based violence. On paper, it is a lever for structural change. On paper.The problem is that the requirement has created, in some contexts, only a formal compliance. Organizations that hastily draft the document. Plans that no one has consulted with staff or students. Commitments without deadlines, training sessions attended only by the convinced. The letter of the regulation, complete. The spirit, absent. And the Commission knows it: it has already announced adjustments for this year (without waiting for the new framework program) to verify its real compliance.It is very clear that we are talking about institutional culture. And changing the culture of an institution requires leadership to assume it as a real priority, not as an external obligation. It assumes that all personnel, from the newest to the management positions, understand why equality improves the quality of science. Research has repeatedly shown that diversity in teams produces more solid science, more interesting questions are asked, and biases that homogeneous teams do not see are detected. When a clinical trial does not stratify by sex, or when an algorithm is trained with data that overrepresent a profile, the results are, at best, incomplete. At worst, harmful.Let's return to students and their work. The difference between submitting the work and reading the book is that if you haven't read it, it couldn't have changed you at all. Universities and research centers that want to compete in the European space must not only have the equality plan signed; they must be able to demonstrate that their policies work, that the data improves, that culture changes. Not a document saved on the institutional website, but an organization that has changed from within. And this is not achieved by signing a paper. A paper does not make spring. But an institution that truly fulfills it, does.

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The rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, becomes emotional when explaining the honoris causa he has just awarded to the medical director of BioNTech: “They are one step away from finding a vaccine for cancer. Do you know what that means?” He tells us this to a group of members of the UB Social Council, gathered on a cold March morning. The German Özlem Türeci has indeed predicted that in ten years, treating cancer with mRNA vaccines will be commonplace. This is one of the “wonderful things,” as the rector says, that happen in our universities daily and which do not always receive the attention they deserve.

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To make the Catalan university system more inclusive and accessible to everyone. With this principle in mind, the country's universities have been promoting initiatives for years to facilitate access to higher education and ensure that more and more students can pursue a degree. Among the mechanisms to make this possible are a wide variety of tools: from scholarship and financial aid programs to support services for students with disabilities or specific needs. In parallel, new, more flexible learning models have also been implemented, allowing students to combine their studies with other personal or professional commitments.

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For decades, universities have emphasized one concept: specialization. Their classrooms have produced economists, political scientists, philosophers—defined profiles trained in disciplines with clear boundaries. However, it is increasingly difficult to address major contemporary debates from a single perspective. A multitude of challenges arise: how to regulate artificial intelligence without stifling innovation, how to guarantee economic growth without exacerbating inequalities, how to govern society in a context of polarization and climate crisis… The degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics is based on this observation: complexity is not addressed by fragmenting knowledge, but by doing.

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Catalonia's oldest university – founded in 1300 as the Estudi General – now has a woman's face. The woman from Lleida. Maria Àngels Balsells Bailón is the first rector of the University of Lleida And one of only three in the entire Catalan university system. She shies away from individual triumphs and attributes it to "a collective advance." "I hope that one day this won't be news and people will simply talk about merit," she says.

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The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, appointed a new Minister of Education, Science, and Universities yesterday, Monday, replacing Emilio Viciana, who had held the position since 2023. The new minister will be Mercedes Zarzalejo, a member of parliament from the People's Party. This change—the first of the current term under Díaz Ayuso's government—comes amidst ongoing negotiations and the processing of the regional university law and the Controversy over the underfunding of public universitiesAccording to EFE, citing Madrid government sources, the change in the Education Ministry is motivated by a need for change and the implementation of a university model that, in Ayuso's opinion, the now former Minister of Education failed to lead. Specifically, the Madrid president had tasked Viciana "more than two years ago" with "a program to support, strengthen, and modernize Madrid's universities," which she did not see fulfilled. Therefore, she "has decided to give new impetus" to the Ministry with the appointment of Zarzalejo. The same sources state that the new Minister has taken on the same mandate and must "carry out this ambitious university project." The Madrid government avoids placing the Law on Higher Education, Universities, and Science (LESUC) at the center of this project, defining it instead as "just another tool that the Minister started working on but which also failed to bear fruit."

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The academic offerings of universities in the State continue to prioritize student preferences over the needs of the labor market, and although higher education has halved the unemployment rate in a decade, this achievement is overshadowed by the increasing precariousness of these graduates, according to the fifteenth edition of the report. The Spanish university in figuresThe report, prepared by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), reveals that 17.5% of students work part-time year-round (21% for women), compared to 8.3% in the OECD, reflecting the "persistent precariousness of the Spanish labor market." The report concludes that demand for the Spanish university system will remain stable, at around 1.7 million undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students, over the next twenty years, and lists three clear challenges: increased public funding, a decisive boost to knowledge transfer, and the reversion of teaching and research to the universities themselves. "Having a university education is an excellent investment," says Eva Alcón, president of CRUE and rector of Jaume I University, while acknowledging that there is still "room for improvement."

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"We must save the current situation of Catalan," says Núria Graner. She even changed her major and this year began studying philology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) after seeing the Tria Filologia campaign and realizing the state of Catalan in Barcelona: "They don't even understand you in Catalan, they look down on you if you speak it, and the Language Policy Law isn't being enforced." Beside her is Aniol Torreblanca, a fellow student at the UAB, who has chosen the same path: "I speak Catalan with everyone and correct them if they make a mistake, affectionately, because I believe we must take care of Catalan and spread it," he says, adding that his degree will give him the knowledge and authority to do so. Further afield, Arnau Trilla, who studies at the University of Lleida, says: "I was already interested in the humanities and the Catalan language, but given the decline in its use in urban areas, I wanted to help address this and promote Catalan among young people, who are losing it." These are three of the students who have received the first scholarship to study Catalan philology from the Generalitat (Catalan government), an initiative that aims to attract more students and graduates in Catalan.

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Switzerland is a world apart. Always. The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) received a complaint against a researcher who was receiving a María Zambrano grant, which is incompatible with any other funding or resources, because the woman simultaneously held a 42-hour postdoctoral contract at the University of Basel. But the Swiss institution refused to provide any information. "For reasons of personal data protection, they did not want to inform us of the contractual relationship or any details of the researcher's personal situation," was Basel's response to the UAB, echoing the response the Swiss university gave to this newspaper. In other words, Catalan institutions are unable to determine whether their employees are committing alleged fraud.

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The government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has avoided providing figures on the participation in the strike that began this Wednesday at Madrid's public universities to protest the underfunding that is "suffocating" higher education. While the Madrid government has tried to downplay the protest, claiming that it is "politicized" and "has no justification whatsoever," the organizers of the strike say that participation has ranged between 50% and 90%, depending on the campus. The student platforms of Madrid's six public universities (Complutense, Rey Juan Carlos, Carlos III, Autonomous University of Madrid, Polytechnic University, and University of Alcalá de Henares) called the strike, which will continue until tomorrow, with the support of the unions CCOO, UGT, CGT, and CNT. The protest is in response to the budget proposal put forward by the government of the Community of Madrid.which will increase funding for public universities by 6.5%. Student groups consider this insufficient because, according to their calculations, the budget for public higher education will only increase from 0.44% of the regional GDP to 0.46%, and they believe that anything less than approaching 1% is inadequate. Conversely, the executive branch previously argued that the education budget represents more than 4% of the entire budget of the Community of Madrid.

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In the final stretch of his eight-year termQuim Salvi, the parish priest of the University of Girona (UdG), receives ARA in the beautiful Les Àligues building—a former military barracks in the Barri Vell (Old Quarter) that exemplifies the university's transformation of the historic center—eager to take stock but also with a long-term vision. Currently, the UdG has four campuses in the city: the Barri Vell campus, the city center campus, the Montilivi campus, and the Research and Innovation Park in La Creueta. And unlike other universities, it is finding that more and more students are choosing it as their first option: a direct consequence of the cost of living in Barcelona and the difficulties students face in finding affordable housing. The next parish priest's challenge will be the creation of the new Health Campus on the border between Girona and Salt, where the new Trueta stadium is to be built. The elections will be held on November 27, and the new parish priest is expected to take up his post around Christmas time.

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From the moment a university decides to launch a new degree program until the first students graduate, approximately seven years typically elapse. This includes the four standard years of a degree program, but also the roughly three years spent developing the project and completing the process that determines which degrees are offered at Catalan universities. Within this process, one of the key and mandatory steps is that the degree proposal receives a favorable evaluation from the Catalan University Quality Agency (AQU). Only one in ten projects passes this filter. This information comes from data compiled by AQU, which ARA has consulted, regarding the number of proposals for new degrees, master's programs, or doctoral programs that the agency has evaluated in the last five years to issue a report certifying the quality of these future programs.

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"If there's no respite for public universities, there will be no peace for those who are suffocating us: class by class, department by department, faculty by faculty, we are going to build a strike that will shake those who mistreat the right to a public university." With this phrase, the student platforms of the six public universities in Madrid (Complutense, Rey Juan Carlos, Carlos III, Autónoma, Politécnica, and Alcalá de Henares) stood up against the underfunding by Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government and called a two-day strike for "the end of November."

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The ritual has been repeated a couple of times each academic year for many years. It's been widely reported that an association has invited a far-right politician or a politician aligned with them to the Autonomous University of Barcelona, whether Rosa Díez, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, or the latest in this series, Vito Quiles. On the appointed day, far-left student associations have already organized to disrupt the event and prevent the alleged protest from taking place. conference. The Mossos d'Esquadra must intervene to prevent more violent clashes. (Some of the police, by the way, beat the students with barely concealed rage.) Afterwards, everyone goes home and that's it, a year ago today.

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