The UB makes the leap to China: it will be the first Catalan university to open a campus there

Barcelona"We are the first to open this path, we trust that this will serve the rest of the system." With these words, the rector of the University of Barcelona (UB), Joan Guàrdia, has announced one of the institution's major bets: taking the leap to China. The UB will be the first Catalan university to open a campus in China, and it will do so hand-in-hand with the Harbin Institute of Technology, a leading center in technology and engineering, considered one of the nine best universities in the country, according to the Chinese government.

The new campus will be called the HIT-UB School and will be installed on the Weihai campus, in the Shandong province. The Catalan-Chinese campus will debut with three double master's degrees starting from the 2027-2028 academic year: environmental engineering (UB) and marine sciences (intelligent marine ecology) (HIT); advanced microbiology (UB) and marine sciences (marine biomanufacturing) (HIT), and analytical chemistry (UB) and marine sciences (marine resources chemistry) (HIT).

The project, pending final approval from the Chinese and Catalan governments, expects to initially attract 150 students (50 per master's degree). Classes will be in-person and in English, and the student body is expected to be mostly Chinese. "The collaboration will allow the UB to strengthen its technological profile hand-in-hand with a reference university in this field, and will prepare us to have greater innovation and research capacity," defended Guàrdia. Furthermore, he has already advanced that the forecast is that the first year the campus enters into operation, the degrees will already be expanded.

Urgency for the medicine budget

In a meeting with journalists, the rector also sounded an alarm regarding the budgetary situation for expanding medical school places, as announced by the Government. Guàrdia explained that the university is still awaiting confirmation of the necessary budget to cope with the increase in medical school places. "We know that executing the budget is not easy at all, but to do things well we need to know what budget we will have at the latest five months before the start of the academic year," insisted the rector, who recalled that the UB is responsible for opening 30 new medical school places for the 2027-2028 academic year.

Beyond the budget for the medical degree places, Guàrdia has asked for an in-depth analysis of what the mechanism for labor absorption in the medical field will be in seven or eight years' time "in order to avoid mismatches between places and job supply." "It will also be necessary to expand the MIR places," he insisted.