Objectives and competences

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the Interuniversity Master's Degree in Occupational Safety and Health: Prevention of Occupational Hazards is aimed at all the university graduates who are interested in this area, and specifically in prevention of occupational risks.

Since the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1995 and the Royal Decree on Prevention Services of 1997, companies are obliged to have prevention resources that must be established by qualified experts. The aim of this master's degree is to train professionals with the knowledge, skills and abilities required to take on professional responsibilities as experts in occupational risk prevention. The master's degree offers the following three specialisations: Safety at Work, Industrial Hygiene, and Ergonomics and Applied Social Psychology. It also gives access to doctoral studies. The general objectives of the master's degree are:
  • To standardise the basic knowledge of students from different fields in the areas of knowledge that are fundamental in studies of occupational hazard prevention.
  • To gain the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes required to work at a high level in occupational hazard prevention.
  • To gain knowledge of the three specialisations in non-medical areas of prevention (Safety at Work, Industrial Hygiene, as well as Ergonomics and Applied Social Psychology).

Basic information

TypeMaster's degree
Faculty or schoolFaculty of Psychology
Branch of knowledge
  • Behavioural sciences and psychology
  • Social sciences, social work, industrial relations and human resources, sociology, political science and international relations
  • Interdisciplinary
Mode of delivery
  • Face-to-face
Credits90
Length of course2 academic years
CoordinationRAMON FERRER PUIG
Course detailsIndicators
Open pre-enrolmentNo
Open enrolmentNo
Lead to doctoral studiesYes
Admission for applicants not holding a degree qualificationNo
Main university information Master's degree course homepage
InteruniversityYes
Main universityUniversitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Universities
  • Universitat Barcelona
  • Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
  • Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Bridging coursesNo

Objectives and competences

Objectives

Competences

  • Knowledge of legislation on workplace health and ability to follow updates to this legislation, identify the autonomous community, national and European technical bodies related to workplace health and safety and interpret specific legislation and technical regulations concerning matters of safety in the workplace.
  • Sufficient technical knowledge to carry out risk assessments and to suggest corrective measures for general hazards related to the workplace, facilities, working equipment, fire hazards, explosions, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, applied psychosociology, etc.
  • Ability to apply prevention-related techniques: product safety, management of capital assets and road safety, and communication techniques in the prevention of workplace risks.
  • Abiity to identify and differentiate between the basic elements of organisation, management and integration of health and safety within a company.
  • Good negotiation techniques, research techniques into workplace health, design and evaluation of ventilation systems, etc.
  • Ability to identify and differentiate between advanced techniques of noise evaluation and control in industry, mechanisms for transmission and entry routes for biological agents.
  • Ability to identify and differentiate between specific risks associated with construction, machinery, agricultural installations, offices, computer equipment, etc., and to develop intervention plans to correct them.
  • Ability to coordinate health and safety activities with health awareness activities and to provide first aid.
  • Ability to promote the system of responsibilities regarding workplace risk prevention.
  • Ability to develop emergency plans, training plans and information plans for employees, including detection of needs and establishment of evaluation systems and monitoring measures.
  • Ability to communicate appropriately with employees and their representatives and with other technical and management agents in the company with responsibilities in the area of workplace health and safety conditions.
  • Ability to evaluate chemical, physical and biological risks in relation to physical and mental strain at work, etc., and to suggest corrective measures.
  • Ability to draw up health and safety plans, biological waste management plans, works safety plans, etc. Ability to apply epidemiological methods to solving problems and to design epidemiological studies to check hypotheses.
  • Ability to manage disasters related to the climate, road accidents involving hazardous chemical products, radioactive substances or fires.
  • Ability to prevent and detect psychosocial problems and to implement techniques of adaptation between the demands of the job and the employee's abilities.
  • Ability to encourage healthy behaviour, habits, consumption and lifestyles and the active participation of employees in their own health, while encouraging a culture of health and safety within the company and the creation of healthy environments.
  • Ability to exchange and integrate information with multidisciplinary teams and to exercise workplace risk prevention in accordance with ethical criteria.

Access and admission

Applicant profile and access requirements

Recommended applicant profile

Access requirements and conditions

General requirements
In accordance with Article 16 of Royal Decree 1393/2007, of 29 October, students wishing to be admitted to a university master's degree must hold one of the following qualifications:

  • Official Spanish university degree.

  • A degree issued by a higher education institution within the European Higher Education Area framework that authorizes the holder to access university master's degree courses in the country of issue.

  • A qualification issued by an institution outside the framework of the European Higher Education Area. In this case, applicants must request homologation of the degree to its equivalent official Spanish university qualification or obtain express approval from the University of Barcelona, which will conduct a study of equivalence to ensure that the degree is of a comparable level to an official Spanish university qualification and that it grants access to university master's degree study in the country of issue. Admission shall not, in any case, imply that prior qualifications have been recognized as equivalent to a Spanish master's degree and does not confer recognition for any purposes other than that of admission to the master's degree course.

Pre-enrolment

Calendar

Pre-enrolment is carried out at the coordinating university.
Further information

Required documentation

Selection criteria

Notification

Enrolment

As a general rule, at the UB you will be required to enrol online. Remember that you can lose your place if you do not enrol on the day you have been assigned

Course curriculum

Subjects and course plans

Distribution of credits

Type ECTS
Compulsory 69
Optional 0
Compulsory placements 12
Compulsory final project 9
TOTAL 90

List of subjects

Subject Type Language Credits
Specialization: Occupational Health and Safety: Occupational Risk Prevention
Business and Society Compulsory 4
Corporate Economic and Financial Analysis Compulsory 3
Ergonomics in the Workplace I Compulsory 6
Ergonomics in the Workplace I Compulsory 3
Final Project Compulsory 9
Health and Safety Legislation Compulsory 3
Health Monitoring Compulsory 3
Industrial Hygiene I Compulsory 4
Industrial Hygiene II Compulsory 6
Institutional or Company Placement Compulsory 12
Management of the Occupational Risk Prevention Compulsory 3
Occupational Epidemiology Compulsory 3
Occupational Social Psychology I Compulsory 3
Occupational Social Psychology II Compulsory 6
Organization of Work Compulsory 3
Principles of Prevention Compulsory 3
Quality and the Environment Compulsory 3
Safety at Work I Compulsory 4
Safety at Work II Compulsory 6
Training and Communication Compulsory 3

Previous years

Placements

Placements in a company or another type of organization are an integral part of university studies, providing first-hand experience of working methodologies in students' chosen professional fields. They offer invaluable practical experience for the transition into work after graduation.



Placements are supervised by tutors and subject to assessment. They are therefore included in the academic record.  There is also an option to complete non-curricular placements of up to 500 hours, which can be extended to 900 hours. For both curricular and non-curricular placements, an educational cooperation agreement is signed between the UB and the company, institution or other organization at which the placement will be carried out.



Institutional information


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