The UVic-UCC expands by 9% as new bachelor's degrees start

The University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) has seen an increase in the number of newly registered students on official courses by 9% for the 2017-18 academic year. This is about 3% more students than the same figure for the last academic year. Total registrations for these bachelor's degree programmes at the UVic, UManresa, official master's degrees and doctoral courses at the UVic-UCC, the Professional Campus, and student numbers on the bachelor's degree course in Translation, Interpreting and Applied Languages offered jointly by the UVic and the Open University of Catalonia, and the affiliated centres at the BAU, EADA and ESERP have increased by 12% compared to last year.

Those are the registration figures for the 2017-2018 academic year that the rector of the UVic-UCC, Jordi Montaña, presented at a press conference with a lunch format this afternoon, at the UVic's tasting laboratory. According to Montaña, this year's growth is "especially significant if we take into account the drop in the overall demand for university places, and shows that the new courses we offer have proven to be attractive." As a result, he said that registration for this 2017-2018 academic year, the third year with joint registration as the UVic-UCC, "provides grounds for optimism about the consolidation of the knowledge space in central Catalonia."

The first year of Medicine is under way
Eighty-seven students have registered in this first academic year, of which 86% are from the Catalan Countries and Andorra, while the rest come from elsewhere in Spain and abroad. 75% are women and the remaining 25% are men, and they all were admitted to the course through the public university entrance application system. According to the director general of the Foundation for Advanced Health Sciences Studies (FESS), Joan Guanyabens, they are "extremely satisfied with the beginning of the course," and with the students and teaching staff that have joined the project. He also announced that the anatomical dissection laboratory will be up and running by the end of the year, which will enable the body bequest service to cover central Catalonia.
University master's degrees expand as a result of the courses offered.

Apart from the bachelor's degree in Medicine, Montaña also highlighted the increase in registrations for the university master's degrees offered by the UVic-UCC. This growth is due above all to the consolidation of some of the educational training courses, including the master's degree in the Montessori Method of Teaching for children aged 0 to 6 years old (the only one in Spain to have received international recognition from the Montessori Association), and the course on Innovation in Specific Didactics and the high levels of registration for new master's degrees including Improvement of Pre-School Teaching and Primary Education. This is a pilot project carried out with the Catalan Ministry of Education and the Open University of Catalonia, in which 95 teachers in central Catalonia are being trained to foster the professional development of teaching staff and focus their work in the classroom on learning experiences based on the students' real circumstances. Meanwhile, the scientific field has seen the consolidation of the master's degree in Omic Data Analysis, and in the field of health, the master's degree in Palliative Care for People with Advanced Illnesses has filled all its places, as it does every year.

The UVic Campus
This year the UVic has 1,059 students - 12 fewer than the previous year. This decline, which is less marked than last year's, is for two reasons. First, there is the voluntary restriction on newly admitted students to the Physiotherapy degree course, which began last year to ensure thorough student care and pedagogical oversight. Second, five degree courses are coming to an end this year, and are no longer admitting new students. However, this has been offset by the high levels of registration for the courses in Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Psychology, Nursing and the new Automotive Engineering course, on which all the places have been filled. This latter degree course, which is being taught for the first time this year, is being taken by 42 students and is taught at the Granollers campus.

The number of first preference registrations was 79% - a figure very similar to the 80% achieved last year. When broken down by faculty, the Faculty of Education, Translation and Humanities (FETCH) accounts for 35% of the total number of new registrations, without taking into account the degree course in Translation, Interpretation and Applied Languages, which has the most new students registered. Registration in the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences has increased by 22%, and all the places have been filled, as have those on the Psychology and Social Education courses. The Faculty of Business and Communication Studies (FEC) accounts for 15% of new registrations, with an increase of 44% in registrations for BAM studies.
The Faculty of Health Sciences and Welfare (FCSB) accounts for 31% of the overall figure for new student registrations. All the places of the Physiotherapy and Nursing courses have been filled, and Human Nutrition and Dietetics continues the strong growth of last year, with 48 students registered. There are a large number of international students taking a degree course in this Faculty, although there are fewer than last year, and they mainly come from France. Finally, the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) accounts for 19% of registrations of newly admitted students to the UVic - a higher percentage than a year ago, thanks to the sharp increase in registration for Multimedia and the success of the Automotive Engineering course, which has offset the decline in the overall demand for engineering courses.

Profile of new students
The majority of these new students at the UVic are women, who account for 57% compared to 43% who are men. Men are only in the majority in the Faculty of Sciences and Technology. In terms of geographical origin, 22% come from Osona, 14% from the Vallès Oriental, 9% from the Barcelonès and 6% from the Bages. As for means of access, a majority of students (53%) have completed university entrance examinations, but the number of students who are beginning a degree course after completing advanced level specific vocational training has increased slightly.

The UManresa Campus
A total of 484 new students have registered on the Manresa campus this year - 16.6% more than a year ago. This is the third consecutive year that the number of new admissions has increased, and this consolidates the trend towards growth which began with the federation of the UVic-UCC in 2014. The new additions increase the size of both faculties - both Health Sciences (which has 15% more students) and Social Sciences (with 28% more). Courses with high growth rates include the new blended degree in Speech Therapy, with an increase in new registrations of 93%; BAM, with 40%; and Nursing, with 28%. Podiatry and Physiotherapy are degree courses that appeal to international students. This year, newly admitted foreign students amount to 62% of the total numbers for Physiotherapy, and 30% for Podiatry. All the places on the first year courses in Physiotherapy and Nursing have been filled.

UManresa has a total of 1,608 students registered on 6 study programmes and one combined degree for the 2017-2018 academic year - an increase of 8.7% compared to the previous year. The most significant growth in absolute terms has taken place on the Physiotherapy and Speech Therapy courses. In terms of each faculty, most of the students (87% of the total) are studying in the Health Sciences, while the Faculty of Social Sciences accounts for 13%.

Profile of new students

71% of the new students registered at UManresa are women. Female students are in the majority on the degree courses in Speech Therapy (with 91% of women) and Pre-School Teaching (with 94%). Men are only a majority among the newly admitted students to BAM studies, where they account for 61%.

In general, they have joined the University after higher secondary education and the university entrance examination (54%) or advanced level specific vocational training (24%). The exception to the rule is the new blended degree in Speech Therapy, on which 50% of students hold previous university degrees. Furthermore, in these courses, 70% of new students have decided to take the slow track, registering for less than 30 credits a year.

30% of the new students of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Manresa are from outside Spain, and have mainly decided to take courses in Physiotherapy and Podiatry. They mainly come from France, as well as from Italy and Andorra. There are also students from other autonomous regions in Spain. They are taking Health and Pre-School Teaching courses, and come from the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, the Valencian Country, La Rioja, the Canary Islands, Andalucia, Castile and Aragon.

UVic-UCC strategic projects

During his presentation of the UVic-UCC's strategic projects, the director general of the Balmes University Foundation (FUBalmes) Joan Turró emphasised that the increase in registrations shows that "the federation is working well" and that it is becoming in a "regional university campus" in a healthy financial position. According to Turró, the institution's budgetary balance has permitted it "not to restrict growth and come out of the crisis with financial stability." The strategic commitments outlined by the director general included the digitalisation of the University, and he mentioned the 20,000 students who have registered on some of the 5 MOOCs offered by the UVic-UCC.

The director general of the Bages University Foundation (FUBages), Valentí Martínez, gave details of the institution's strategic projects, including the commitment by the Manresa campus to simulation as a learning method, with a university master's degree in this field incorporating simulation as an activity on the degree course in Medicine, and the inclusion of simulation in all training activities and the establishment of the Chair for Simulation and Patient Safety. The Spanish Simulation and Patient Safety Society will be holding its Congress in Manresa in April. Martínez also announced that the Professional Campus will teach two new higher high level training cycles in the field of education and business management in Manresa, and he presented the new FUB3 building that extends the theoretical and practical training areas for the Health Sciences by almost 3,000 square metres, as part of them which are currently in the University Clinic will be adapted to accommodate simulation teaching on the Medicine degree course.