UVic-UCC will offer the bachelor's degree in Global Studies, two advanced vocational training programmes and a new master's degree in the 2024-2025 academic year

The University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) will launch the new bachelor's degree course in Global Studies in the 2024-2025 academic year, which will be taught in the Faculty of Business and Communication Studies (FBCS), and joins the University's 41 programmes that are currently available. Among the new additions for the next academic year, which will be presented between 13 and 17 March at the Saló de l'Ensenyament education exhibition in Barcelona, there are two new advanced vocational training programmes (AVTP) on the Vic Campus: Production of Audiovisual Projects and Shows, and Pre-School Teaching Specialising in Montessori Pedagogy, which will both be taught on the University campus. Other noteworthy additions to the University's postgraduate course include the university master's degree in Participatory Health Research, four new university master's degrees at Elisava for lifelong learning, and the UVic Graduate School's launch of a new range of training in micro-credentials to meet the needs of the labour market. At UManresa, the bachelor's degree course in Digital Society Management enters its second academic year, with the launch of paid internships in companies. 

Global Studies - a bachelor's degree with an international perspective

The bachelor's degree in Global Studies  will train professionals to enable them to interact in the international arena, and to understand and critically analyse global challenges; identify international political, social and economic actors; analyse society's challenges from a social point of view, and work in multicultural environments linked to international organisations, among other skills. There will be 40 places on the new bachelor's degree course, which will be taught entirely in English, will provide training in a second language (French or Chinese) and will have a mandatory mobility period abroad. 

The degree in Global Studies is part of a model of higher education that focuses on interdisciplinary knowledge. One of its strengths is the strategies it offers to students to enable them to adapt to the complexity of a changing, globalised and connected world, and the wide range of disciplines to meet current and future challenges that it covers. It aims to train people in order to give them an understanding of contemporary phenomena - migrations, climate change, war and violence, economic or gender inequalities, pandemics, etc. - and to enable them to work towards social transformation. It is therefore aimed above all at people who are interested in analysing the world as a whole and advising companies or institutions making strategic decisions, which may be in the field of trade, diplomatic relations or international cooperation, among other areas. 

Josep Burgaya, dean of the Faculty of Business and Communication Studies, where the new degree course will be taught, says that "it is a bachelor's degree for the future, as an increasing number of multidisciplinary professionals will be needed to interpret international challenges and to act as agents of change." Likewise, the vice-rector for Academic Affairs, Àngels Pinyana, says that "bachelor's degrees currently require a considerable depth of knowledge, but we are working to give them an interdisciplinary approach at the same time." She also says that "this interdisciplinary vision is also being applied to various bachelor's degrees and knowledge areas at UVic-UCC, based on the versatility of profiles that society needs."

The requirement to pass the PFP will be more flexible

One of the main new developments in the coming academic year is that the requirement to pass personal fitness tests (PFP) to access the bachelor's degree in Physical Education and Sports Sciences will no longer apply. For its bachelor's degrees in teaching, UVic-UCC is currently making the requirement to pass the PFP more flexible from the 2024-2025 academic year onwards. Students will have to take the PFP tests, but if they do not pass them before starting their degree course, they will still be able to take the degree course and will have to pass the physical test during their studies. Passing the public call for the PFP will also be a prerequisite for passing two first-year courses. 

Next year's Pre-School Teaching and Primary School Teaching courses in the Faculty of Education, Translation, Sports and Psychology (FETEP) next year will include the fully consolidated independent projects of School and University (SU) and Mentorship and Teaching Identity (MTI). One of the new features of the Pre-School Teaching course at UManresa will be the consolidation of work on interdisciplinary competencies based on a cooperative project on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that has begun this year.

Other new developments in bachelor's degree studies

The full deployment of bachelor's degree courses at Elisava will culminate in the 2024-2025 academic year, so that all its students, from the first to the fourth year, will be UVic-UCC students. The second year of the bachelor's degree in Digital Society Management will begin at the Manresa Campus, where paid internships in companies will begin, based on stages included in the Premium programme. This programme, which is cross-disciplinary within all Business studies at UManresa, enables students to acquire broad-based professional skills that improve their employability, giving them a broader perspective on the business fabric, enhancing their employment opportunities and allowing them to fund up to 70% of the total cost of their studies. The second year of the bachelor's degree in Dentistry and the UVic-specific bachelor's degree in General Audiology will begin in the Faculty of Medicine. 

Another interesting aspect in the 2024-2025 academic year will be the launch of interprofessional learning for students from various bachelor's degree programmes in the faculty as a strategic project by the Faculty of Health Sciences and Welfare (FHSW). With this same idea in mind, and starting next year, the Faculty of Health Sciences at Manresa (bachelor's degrees in Nursing, Podiatry, Physiotherapy and Medicine) will also enhance students' learning in interprofessional environments at the CISARC Simulation Innovation Centre. The FHSW will also provide mentoring for all first-year students on all the faculty's bachelor's degree programmes, students will be given the opportunity to do their degree final project (DFP) in groups, and they will be able to participate in a new international Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) in the field of food and sustainability, focusing on protein transition.

The new additions for the coming year also include the implementation of an action plan to enhance cross-disciplinary oral and written communication competencies at all levels in the Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering (FSTE), and the launch of collaborative projects with foreign universities so that all students can have an international experience during their studies. There will also be an innovative project to enhance the faculty's students' mathematical knowledge.

Next year will see the launch of a new, more efficient and personalised tutoring management programme for all first-year students on all bachelor's degree courses. In the field of student care, the University's consolidated Student Support Programme (SSP) will expand its services with the addition of another psychologist, who will join the four professionals currently dealing with UVic-UCC students' psychological and psychopedagogical problems. "The university aims to support our students, and especially our first-year students, in the field of teaching, providing them with personalised support, including an area as important as health and personal well-being," explains Ángels Pinyana, vice-rector for Academic Affairs at UVic-UCC.

Two new AVTP

The UVic-UCC will be expanding the range of advanced vocational training programmes (AVTP) that it teaches at its Vic Campus in the next academic year. The Professional Campus will add two new programmes to the five it already offers. The first will be Production of Audiovisual Projects and Shows, which has been designed for young people who want to learn about the entire process involved audiovisual creation, from production to the première of films, series, documentaries and shows. The other AVTP will be in Pre-School Teaching Specialising in Montessori Pedagogy, in which the students will be trained to educate boys and girls aged between 0 and 6 years old, applying the Montessori Method of teaching for independent development and active exploration. 

Both programmes will be taught on the university campus on an integrated basis with the bachelor's degree programmes, with which they will share classrooms and facilities, such as the Pre-School Teaching and Research Laboratories, and the television and photography studios and the radio studio. These two cycles are part of the 2+3 programme, which facilitates the transition to University.

The UManresa Professional Campus has signed collaboration agreements with companies and centres in various European countries to ensure that starting next year, students on the AVTP in International Trade and Administration and Finance can do internships abroad. For students who decide to do them in Spain, the academic calendar has been adjusted so that the time spent working in the company can be compressed into eight-hour days over half a year to foster immersion in the workplace.

New master's degrees and micro-credential training in lifelong learning courses

As part of its postgraduate programmes, the Faculty of Health Sciences and Welfare (FHSW) will launch the university master's degree in Participatory Research in Health in the next academic year. This course aims to provide health professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to engage in in-depth health research from a participatory and integrative perspective, to provide patient-centred care from childhood to old age. The master's degree, which has a preventive, treatment-based and palliative approach, provides a holistic perspective on health. It will be taught in a blended learning format, and there will be 40 places available on the course.

Meanwhile, the UVic Postgraduate School will diversify its current range of courses with training in microcredentials to meet the new demands of the labour market. These are short-term courses, divided into 1 or 3 ECTS credits, which officially certify that the student has acquired specific skills. Four programmes with 1 ECTS credit each are currently in progress: Innovation and Intrapreneurship, Transform your Business with AI, Soft Skills for the Digital Environment, and Business Finance for non-Financials. 

Four new lifelong learning master's degrees will be taught at the Elisava Faculty of Design and Engineering in the next academic year, and all will be taught in English. One will be the master's degree in Creativity and Design Leadership, which combines leadership, design and creativity for the development of management skills in the creative sector. Another is the master's degree in Algorithmic and Networked Photography, which focuses on the world of digital imaging and online visual culture, and provides insights into post-photography, AI imaging, machine vision and synthetic photography. The third programme, the master's degree in Critical Design, provides tools for using critical thinking to promote change in society, cities and the environment. Finally, the master's degree in Design for Digital Experience explores the boundaries of design and digital innovation based on Internet culture, digital ethics and design ethics, digital accessibility, etc.

The Doctoral School will enhance its range of training in the next academic year, aimed at the School's doctoral students and thesis supervisors, based on its academic range of ten doctoral programmes, which will mean 101 new admission places will be available, joining the 370 current doctoral students next year. In addition to the doctoral programmes, there will also be a specific range of training activities for the doctoral and cross-disciplinary programmes.   

New spaces and facilities

As for infrastructure, the spaces in the Faculty of Medicine in Vic has have been expanded this year, and they will gradually begin to be used: there is a technological laboratory (for the bachelor's degrees in Medicine, Dentistry and the UVic-specific bachelor's degree in General Audiology), a preclinical dental laboratory and the AudioLab, a specialised laboratory in audiology and a pioneering facility in Spain. The extension amounts to a total area of 1,500 m², which also includes five new classrooms. These spaces, which will be formally inaugurated this April, will be joined in the coming academic year by new University facilities in the Hospital Consortium of Vic, with more than 500 m² of teaching classrooms and work spaces for students doing health-related courses (Medicine, Nursing, etc.).

The Faculty of Education, Translation, Sports and Psychology (FETSP) will have a new language and literature teaching classroom/laboratory at the Masia Torre dels Frares, a building devoted exclusively to education, which will also house the new AVTP on education that will begin next year. The Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Engineering (FSTE) will have a new facility for immersive experiences on the bachelor's degree course in Multimedia. Applications and Video Games. And in the Faculty of Sciences Health and Welfare (FHSW), the technology in the Comprehensive Clinical Simulation Area will be upgraded by updating its software and the associated high-fidelity robots in order to enhance the new immersive technologies.

The Casa de Convalescència will be equipped with new spaces for use by the Doctoral School, while the UGranollers base at Can Muntanyola will be consolidated with the transfer of the AVTP in Marketing and Advertising. New technical facilities will be built there, and new machinery will be installed in the laboratories to enhance the bachelor's degree in Automotive Engineering.

Continuity in the scholarships system

UVic-UCC will maintain its range of scholarships for official university education, from which one in four students benefited in the 2022-2023 academic year. The total amount awarded for scholarships was 7,568,017 Euros, and 3,016,694 Euros were awarded in the form of grants and discounts.