The Rector's Office of Pompeu Fabra University organised a working meeting for the managerial teams of the 4 Universities Alliance (A4U) on 15 November last year, attended by the following rectors: Ana Ripoll (Autonomous University of Barcelona), José M. Sanz (Autonomous University of Madrid), Daniel Peña (Carlos III University of Madrid) and Josep Joan Moreso (Pompeu Fabra University). The meeting was also attended by the vice-rectors from the academic, research and international relations areas of the four universities.

An agreement was reached in the meeting to create a joint degree between the four universities comprising the A4U in the field of social sciences; specifically, a bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

It is a cross-disciplinary degree addressed to a small number of students (30 to 40) who will follow their studies both in Barcelona and Madrid. The start of the course is expected for the 2012-2013 academic year.

A cross-disciplinary degree taught at prestigious universities

The cross-disciplinary nature of the new bachelor's degree entails great advantages when it comes to its implementation, since it has been set up using existing resources at all four universities, with no added costs in terms of facilities and minimal investment in new teaching staff and it also offers important synergies that can be forged with other approved bachelor's degrees. This adds to the prestige of the four universities in the area of social sciences and humanities.

Another advantage of launching this bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics is that it is already taught in some of the foremost universities in the world, thus assuring its academic standing and prestige. It was established for the first time at Balliol College, University of Oxford during the 1920s under the name Modern Greats, as opposed to the Classics course that was also known as "Greats".

It is currently taught in at least fifty universities such as Duke, Durham, Bern, Hamburg, Manchester, North Carolina, Oxford, Pennsylvania, Warwick, Yale and so on. Some celebrities who graduated in this course at Oxford are the current British prime minister, David Cameron, and two of his predecessors, Edward Heath and Harold Wilson; the late prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto; the thinker Isaiah Berlin; General Wesley Clark; and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Some of the arguments in favour of this new degree include the fact that it is the first bachelor's degree providing a cross-disciplinary vision of social sciences, it provides many of the elements needed to understand our complex world, it offers optimal training for those who wish to pursue a career in politics or communication, it makes it possible to undertake a global education experience at bachelor's degree level and it is an internationally acknowledged degree.

A syllabus that envisages student mobility

The syllabus of the bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics envisages substantial mobility for students who will be able to benefit from Seneca and Erasmus exchange programmes. The first year will be fully undertaken in each city of origin and will be supplemented with summer seminars in Madrid or Barcelona. The second and third years will be fully undertaken in Madrid or Barcelona. And in the final, fourth year students will be able to choose to continue studying at their university of origin or at another university where the degree is taught. To this end, exchange agreements and international mobility agreements will be signed for students attending the foremost centres.

The employment integration of future graduates will be geared towards the following areas: politics, journalism and the media, industry, education, business management, consulting and PR, diplomatic services, autonomous and local governments or international bodies (governmental and non-governmental organisations).

The A4U is an alliance between four universities (Autonoma de Madrid, Autonoma de Barcelona, Carlos III and Pompeu Fabra), resulting from a collaboration agreement signed on 29 January 2008, with the aim to encourage mobility of teachers and doctors among these four centers, aimed at fostering teaching and research within the framework of the European Higher Education Area and at increasing the efficiency and international group. The alliance is also one of the strategic partners of the project CEI UPF - Icària.