The UB first offered its students studies in geology in the year 1910, when the country's national curriculum instituted the bachelor’s degree Natural Science. This degree was then replaced by two separate degrees, Geology and Biology, in 1953. Today, our faculty’s bachelor's degree in geology examines the composition, structure, morphology and history of the Earth and the working methods applied to its study. The practical classes are particularly important, and during the period of their degree students complete some 50 days of teacher-guided field studies as part of the program’s core and mandatory course units, as well as being given the opportunity to enrol in an additional 70 days of fieldwork in optional units.

In the year 1990, the University of Barcelona and the Technical University of Catalonia created together the undergraduate degree Geological Engineering, which examines the principles and working methods of geology as these are integrated with technological subject areas in engineering. For this reason, the degree is jointly taught by the Faculty of Geology and by the Technical University of Catalonia’s School of Civil Engineering at Barcelona (ETSECCPB). Undergraduates in this degree program study course units in both centres, which are located in the Pedralbes Campus.

Master’s degrees, postgraduate studies and doctoral programs

Postgraduate or third-cycle studies at our faculty are designed to enable students to specialise in greater detail, to complete their research training and to obtain one of the UB's doctorates. At present, we participate with other UB centres, other universities and also with national and international research centres in the teaching of five different doctoral programs. We also teach master's degrees and a variety of postgraduate and university extension courses. Finally, the School of Gemmology offers studies leading to a diploma in Gemmology.

In-company placements

Our faculty values the real contact that our student community can have with the professional world and therefore participates in educational cooperation agreements with various institutions through In-company placements, which provide an important opportunity for students to receive quality training for their future careers.

The Faculty's international reach

The Faculty of Geology participates in the LLP Erasmus program (the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), sending Spanish students to universities abroad and hosting international students in Barcelona. It is also a member of the Program for Academic Exchange and Mobility (PIMA), which is being piloted by the Iberoamerican States Organization for Education, Science and Culture, and of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science’s domestic program Séneca, for national student exchanges.

Research

The teachers at our faculty work as members of interdepartmental or interuniversity research groups, or as researchers in goups in other research centres, such as those depending on the Spanish National Research Council. The consolidated research groups in which the academic staff at Geology participate are the following: (1) Crystallography, (2) Deformation and Metamorphism, (3) Marine Geosciences, (4) Geodynamics and Basin Analysis, (5) Economic and Environmental Geology and Hydrology, (6) Fluid Geochemistry, (7) Applied Mineralogy and the Environment, (8) Sedimentary Geology, (7) Paleobiology of the Mediterranean Neogene and (9) Natural Hazards. These groups have the support of local and international finance by both the administration and private sector institutions and companies.

Together with the The Jaume Almera Institute of Earth Sciences at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Faculty of Geology publishes the international earth science journal Geologica Acta, which features research articles and thematic groups of papers on conceptual and regional developments in the field. The journal aims to stimulate the dissemination of research results and findings between earth scientists, with special emphasis on research communities in the Mediterranean, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Services and facilities

Recognised as one of the best European earth science collections, the Library of Geology (UB-CSIC) is shared by our faculty and the Jaume Almera Institute of Earth Sciences, and has a collection of some 16,000 books, 700 current journals, and a cartographical collection of 12,000 maps and 14,000 aerial photographs. The Library also contains a comprehensive database of literature on the geology of the Iberian Peninsular.

In order to assist the practical work completed by students in such areas as mineralogy, petrology and paleontology, the faculty maintains three study rooms equipped with microscopes, binocular magnifiers and task lights. It also has a stereo microscope facility and two computer rooms with UB web and Internet connections and specialised GIS programs microscopis. Finally, the faculty classrooms are stocked with extensive collections of samples, thin sections, maps and aerial photographs.

Amongst other facilities, we offer the faculty-affiliated Thin Section Service, and the Geochemical Analysis service, which is dependent on the UB’s Scientific-Technical Services.

50 years of faculty history

In the year 2003 we celebrated 50 years of Geology studies at the UB with a series of academic events and the publication of book about our faculty's history and the people who have formed part of it.

In 2004, and also to commemorate the beginnings of our history at the university, the faculty formally instituted its alumni association, ‘Paleoalumnes de la Facultat de Geologia de la Universitat de Barcelona’.You can visit the association here.