Marine Sciences, Romance Languages and Retail Management, new UB bachelorʼs degrees for the academic year 2015-2016

The new degree in Marine Sciences

The degree in Marine Science, taught by the UB together with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), consolidate marine studies in Catalonia, thirty years after the development of the PhD Programme in Marine Sciences, and eight years after the implementation of the master's degree in Oceanography and Marine Environmental Management.

Miquel Canals, professor of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geoscience at the UB and coordinator of the new degree, affirms: "The degree offers great professional opportunities as it gathers such important sectors as food, energy, management, sea action planning, marine environment, etc. Graduates will be able to join private companies, administrations, research centres and international organizations".

The creation of the new degree has been supported by professional associations, Spanish and Catalan institutions, research centres, universities and companies, as well as prestigious experts, like Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who discovered hydrothermal vents and the sunken Titanic; Wallace Broecker, the scientist who first spoke about global warming, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, politician and Catalan diplomat who was minister for Education and Science between 1981 and 1982, and director general of UNESCO between 1987 and 1999.

The degree in Marine Sciences of the UB has a total of 240 ECTS, which are divided into four years. Sixty places are offered next academic year. Its course syllabus is centred on marine biology, marine geology and marine ecology, and it particularly emphasizes transversal, instrumental and professionalising contents.

Students will receive training focused no only on geology and biology, but also on the rest of basic sciences and some aspects related to law and economics. The degree is part of the offerings of the Faculty of Geology and it will be developed together with the Faculty of Biology, the faculties of Pharmacy, Physics, Law and Economics and Business of the UB, and the UPC.

The UB reforms the degree in Romance Languages

The second novelty that the University of Barcelona presents for the next academic year is the reform of the degree in Romance Languages, which becomes the new degree in Romance Languages and their Literatures. Meritxell Simó, lecturer of Romance Languages at the UB and coordinator of the new degree, highlights that "the degree provides a transversal and multilingual professional profile that will increase graduates' job opportunities". The UB offers 40 places next academic year.

Its main goals are to reflect about the origin of Romance languages, to study modern Romance languages and their literatures, and to use the new technologies that have revolved humanistic studies for the last decades.

The degree will provide students with a scientific basis of Romance languages and their literatures, from a transversal and comparative perspective. Students will be able to specialize themselves by choosing among different compulsory subjects: first, they can choose one language among Catalan, Spanish, French and Latin; and second, they can select Italian or Galician/Portuguese.

The degree is addressed to three different professional profiles: secondary education teaching, foreign language teaching and translation, and research. Besides these professional opportunities, the multidisciplinary and versatile character of the degree will also train students to carry out a great number of professional tasks, for example publishing, cultural mediation, cultural management, science communication and dissemination, traditional and digital archive management, language and culture consultancy, elaboration of handbooks, catalogues, dictionaries, texts and multimedia resources, etc.

Other new degrees

The School of Commerce and Distribution (ESCODI), new UB affiliated centre, will teach the degree in Retail Business Management, pioneer in Catalonia. It provides transversal knowledge about economics, business management, psychology, territory and cities, and it seeks to develop observation, creativity, initiative and the abilities to organise, communicate, and lead teams.

The degree offers a new professional profile that answers retail business needs. Data proves that 80% of graduates in Retail Business Management find a job related to the studies in less than six months.

Coordinated by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the UB also offers 120 places to take the online degree in Public Management and Administration. Its course syllabus is very similar to the face-to-face degree offered by the UB since 2009.

Concerning bachelor's degrees, there is also another novelty: the inter-university degree in Physiotherapy co-developed by the University School of Health and Sport (EUSES) —affiliated centre with the University of Girona and coordinator of the degree— and the School of New Interactive Technologies (ENTI-UB).

Urban Tourism and Principles of Care and Education for Diabetes Sufferers, the top proposals among master's degrees

The master's degrees that the University of Barcelona offers for the academic year 2015-2016 also include some novelties. The Faculty of Geography and History sets up the Master's in Urban Tourism, coordinated by Professor Francisco López Palomeque, who says: “The master's degree in Urban Tourism provides an opportunity to train in a very dynamic professional area with excellent future prospects, in a context of rapidly changing cities, increasing consolidation of the smart city model, and the emergence of the urban environment as a tourism hub”. Thirty places are offered. Its course syllabus includes two new subject fields: entrepreneurship in urban destinations, and knowledge generation and smart tourism.

Moreover, the Faculty of Medicine includes a new proposal: the master's degree in Principles of Care and Education for Diabetes Sufferers. Enric Esmatjes, professor in the Department of Medicine, coordinates the programme. Its main objective is to provide expert and interdisciplinary knowledge about diabetes, a chronic disease which can occur at any age and requires highly complex treatment and control at all levels of care.

"The professional character of the masterʼs will promote the coordination between health and social professionals in order to guarantee effective and safe health interventions", points out Enric Esmatjes. The degree is supported by the Diabetes Education Study Group (DESG), the Spanish Diabetes Association (SED), the Catalan Diabetes Association (ACD), the Spanish Diabetes Federation (FEDE) and the Catalan Association of Diabetes Sufferers (ADC). Thirty places are offered next academic year.

Finally, the Barcelona International University Centre (UNIBA) offers two new master's degrees in the academic year 2015-2016: Renewable Energy and Energy Sustainability and Advanced Studies in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature. On 9 March, UNIBA affiliation with the University of Barcelona was officially approved and published.

The complete list of masterʼs degrees is available on the website of the UB.

The UB has a new stand at the Saló de lʼEnsenyament

This year, the UB has a new stand at the Saló de lʼEnsenyament; it measures around 120 square metres and it comes to 170 square metres if two UB affiliated centres are also considered: the Catalan Centre for Advanced Studies in Cinema and Audiovisual Media (ESCAC) and the University School of Hotel Management and Tourism (CETT). The stand has been particularly designed to provide visitors with personalized service. Each information point corresponds with one UB school or faculty, and they indicate very clearly which degrees are taught at each centre. The School of Commerce and Distribution (ESCODI), the Institute of Public Security of Catalonia (ISPC), the University School of Nursing, the School of Public Relations, the ESCAC and the CETT also have their own information points.

Besides presenting its academic offerings for the academic year 2015-2016, which includes 82 bachelorʼs degrees, the UB stand also provides visitors with general information about the University.
With the slogan “Jo tb UB”, brochures describing academic offerings also include a QR code that enables students to visit a UB website that collects information about Universityʼs services, online resources, activities and workshops addressed to secondary students and science communication activities, among other interesting aspects.

Apart from the direct information that is provided at the stand, young people can also find personalized attention and counselling. Staff from the Student Support Service of the UB will attend visitorsʼ queries. Moreover, like in previous editions, a representative from Barcelona Activa, an organisation of the Barcelona City Hall, gives students information about career opportunities.

At the stand, the UB distributes specific brochures of each centre and faculty. In total, 19 leaflets have been edited, one for each faculty or school, and other that includes academic information about UB affiliated centres. In addition, there is a leaflet that lists all the degrees offered by the University, ordered according to subject area and the centre or faculty where they are taught.

The UB participates in the Espai Ciència

This year, the UB continues participating in the Espai Ciència of the Saló de lʼEnsenyament with its own stand. Visitors will be able to discover the research and innovation activities developed by some UB research groups, which are experts on different subject areas like Physics, Biology, Mathematics or Medicine. Researchers will share their activity with visitors as they offer workshops, experiments, demos, etc. The main objective is to foster scientific and technological vocations among young students.

Like in previous editions, the Faculty of Geology, together with the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA-CSIC), also has its own stand at the Espai Ciència in order to show the numerous professional opportunities offered by the degrees in Geology, Marine Sciences and Geological Engineering. Representatives of the Professional Association of Geologists of Catalonia and members of the teaching staff of the inter-university degree in Geological Engineering (UPC-UB) describe the professional opportunities of geologists, oceanographers and geological engineers. Moreover, the stand exhibits a series of posters that highlight different areas related to these areas of expertise: environmental management, resource exploration, infrastructure planning and development, etc. The stand will host several activities and workshops to understand how aquifers work, how does magma form in volcanoes, how does a seismograph work, etc.