The Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu: a new University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia affiliated centre

The Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu (CDSJD) will become a centre affiliated to the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), starting in the next academic year. The academic cooperation agreement signed by the two institutions covers official programmes at the centre, which is a member of the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God: the bachelor's degree in Nursing, and the university master's degree in Out-patient Emergency Care and Management. Starting in the next academic year, all the students taking these programmes at the CDSJD will receive the official certificate issued by UVic-UCC upon completing it.   

The CDSJD's affiliation will be implemented gradually. Teaching on the Bachelor's Degree in Nursing as a UVic-UCC qualification will begin in the 2025-2026 academic year, and the university master's degree will be added in 2026-2027. After all the courses have been launched, after four years, estimates suggest that around 1,000 students at the CDSJD will be associated with UVic-UCC and obtain their qualification from it.  

The agreement also stipulates that the CDSJD may offer other programmes of its own, such as master's degrees, postgraduate degrees and university expert qualifications, as well as other official programmes that it may launch in the future under the UVic-UCC umbrella. The agreement signed between UVic-UCC and the CDSJD will cover a period of 10 years, and will be renewed for further five-year periods. 

Enhancing studies in the health field 

According to Josep Eladi Baños, rector of UVic-UCC, establishing ties with a leading institution in the health sector like the CDSJD contributes to "consolidating UVic-UCC's role as a leading institution in the training of future nurses, as key professionals for healthcare and people's well-being." It also positions the University as a "benchmark in revitalising the teaching of these programmes, and in contributing to the definition of the roles of nursing professionals in the future." 

Lorena Molina, the managing director of the CDSJD, says that this affiliation "begins a new era, which will enable us to consolidate our commitment to academic excellence and progress in our vocation of leadership in health and social training." She also points out that "thanks to the cooperation with UVic-UCC, we will be able to offer training that is even more adapted to the needs of the healthcare sector and society, and ensure our students receive the best possible training." 

More than 40 years of Nursing and health programmes 

Josep Eladi Baños believes that with the affiliation of the Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu, UVic-UCC has also taken a very significant step forward in the growth of Health studies, one of the University's areas of expertise, in which it has "a highly consolidated range of official and UVic-specific degree courses, as well as an increasing amount of cutting-edge research."  

Teaching on the bachelor's degree course in Nursing began at the Vic Campus in 1982, and 633 students are currently enrolled on the course. This is in addition to the 661 students who are taking the bachelor's degree course on the Manresa Campus. When the new graduates from the CDSJD are taken into account, forecasts suggest that the total number of students graduating in Nursing courses at UVic-UCC in four years' time will be around 2,300, making it the third-ranked Catalan university in terms of the number of places for this bachelor's degree.   

In the field of Health, UVic-UCC currently also offers other bachelor's degree courses (in Medicine, Dentistry, General Audiology, Physiotherapy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Biomedicine, Psychology, Podiatry and Speech Therapy), and an extensive range of master's and postgraduate degrees. The University also has a doctoral programme in Comprehensive Care and Health Services, and nine chairs linked to health, in addition to eight research groups, two centres and a research institute (the Institute for Research and Innovation in Life Sciences and Health in Central Catalonia - IRIS-CC), which are related to this field. 

The Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu will become UVic-UCC's fourth affiliated centre, in addition to BAU, the College of Arts and Design of Barcelona (2010), the EADA Business School (2013), and ESERP, The Barcelona School of Business and Social Science (2014). 

Expansion of the range of training at CDSJD 

The CDSJD's affiliation to UVic-UCC means that the centre can expand its range of courses, which will initially include the bachelor's degree in Nursing and the university master's degree in Out-patient Emergency Care and Management. This agreement ensures the continuity of the values and academic excellence that define the CDSJD, while the same time reinforcing the centre's commitment to innovation and the training of healthcare and social professionals for the future. 

A reference in health formation

With a history dating back more than 60 years, the CDSJD (which has been based in the town of Sant Boi de Llobregat for the last three years) is a leader in healthcare training, and it is renowned for its values of innovation, solidarity and diversity, its deep roots in the region, and its international profile. It currently offers a wide range of higher education programmes: bachelor's degree courses, university and CDSJD-specific master's degrees, postgraduate degrees, vocational training programmes and lifelong learning courses. 

The CDSJD belongs to the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God, an international, private, non-profit institution with a mission of healing and caring for the most vulnerable people. The Order has 79 health, social, social-health, teaching and research centres in Spain.