On the 21st of January 2005, the royal decree governing official undergraduate courses and the royal decree governing official postgraduate courses were passed, later modified by the royal decree 1509/2005, 16th of December, to adapt the present structure of Spanish university courses to the European Higher Education Area, in accordance with the declaration of Bologna 1999 and subsidiary declarations.
The objective of the new structure of university courses is to harmonise course length, education methods and evaluation of academic activities in European universities, to facilitate student mobility and professional integration into the European labour market. The process of renovating the catalogue of official university qualifications must be completed by the 1st of October 2007. Universities must approve the new syllabi associated with the new official qualifications in a period no longer than three years starting from the approval of the new qualification.
Undergraduate studies will include the basic education and general training in the subject, as well as preparation for professional activities. The number of credits for each of the qualifications of this first cycle will be between 180 and 240. The total number of credits and the official name of each degree will be established by the directives of each degree, which will also determine common teaching contents. The syllabi of the different degrees will be approved by each university, which will decide between 50% and 75% of its contents. The autonomous communities will authorise the implantation of the degrees, and the Ministry of Education and Science will officially approve the degrees.
The master's degrees will include advanced specialist or multidisciplinary education, whose objective will be academic or professional specialisation or an introduction to research activity. Master's degrees will be between 60 and 120 credits, successful completion of which will lead to an official master qualification. The contents and the names of the master's degrees will be decided by universities themselves, in accordance with the autonomous community and the Council of University Coordination.
The objective of the doctorate courses will be the advanced training of the student in research techniques, and must include the elaboration and presentation of a doctoral thesis consisting of original research work. The successful completion of these courses will lead to the title of Doctor, which represents the maximum level of higher education. Acceptance to a doctorate course will require a previous master qualification or the accumulation of 60 credits of an official postgraduate programme. In either case, to be accepted for a doctorate programme the student will have to have completed a minimum of 300 credits shared between undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
The masters are the first realisation of the new structure of university education within the framework of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area). They are made up of European credits (ECTS), which are based on the student's role in the educational process.
According to their orientation, there are three types of Masters:
Masters are the new ordinary route to doctorates. Once an official master (usually a research master) has been successfully completed, application can be made to a doctorate programme, which will involve the elaboration and presentation of a doctoral thesis, consisting of original research work. However, while the new system of Bologna Master's is being introduced into universities, UPF will continue to offer doctoral studies under the previous conditions.
The master programmes have an academic weight of between 60 and 120 ECTS credits, and last for one or two academic years. ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System. It is the standard which has been adopted by all the universities of the EHEA to guarantee the harmonisation and quality of studies offered. In the current system a credit is equivalent to 10 teaching hours, while a ECTS credit takes into account a student's active participation in the process of learning (hours spent on study and work on projects and practical exercises), as well as teaching hours. An academic year is equivalent to 60 ECTS, which is the number of credits a student can obtain when studying full-time.
The Government of Catalonia sets the fees for official studies in Catalan public universities once a year, by issuing a decree which states the credit fee for each field of studies, which depends on the degree of experimentation ascribed (for academic year 2007-2008, has been approved the Decree 151/2007, of 10th July).
For next academic year 2007-2008 the price for each credit for Master's Degrees will be from 24,57 to 28,67 Euros (Board of Trusties approval pending).