Universitat de Barcelona

The official university degree qualifications are grouped in three separate study cycles each leading to the award of a specific degree qualification.

First-cycle studies lead to an EHEA bachelor's degree qualification, while second- and third-cycle studies (known together as postgraduate programs) lead to the award of master's degree and a doctoral qualification, as illustrated in the chart below.

Second-cycle studies lead to master's degree qualifications. In contrast to the courses offered to date, however, the new courses, officially known as university master's degree courses, are recognized both nationally and across the EU, and the fees are fixed at publicly regulated levels by the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya).

University master's degree courses offer a higher level of training, providing specialized training both in a specific area of knowledge and in inter-disciplinary areas in order to improve specific competences in a professional or academic field.  But they are also necessary for students wishing to complete doctoral studies, forming as they now do the learning period of the new postgraduate program, which combines a master's degree and a doctorate. Finally, many university master's courses are offered jointly by more than one UB faculty or school and some are offered jointly by the UB and other universities.

Third-cycle studies are doctoral studies, designed to provide the student with advanced training in research techniques and leading to the award of a doctoral degree qualification.

Generally speaking, the student wishing to complete doctoral studies must first have completed a university master's degree course, given that the master's degree has now been established as  the learning period in doctoral studies. This master's degree must therefore provide the means by which the student can be admitted to a doctorate and so enter the second part of the overall postgraduate program as described above, the research period and the moment at which he or she prepares the doctoral thesis. The duration of this period will depend on the time required to complete the thesis.