This 2013-1014 academic year, the Alliance of 4 Universities (A4U) has started up the joint degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, a transversal qualification to be taught jointly between the universities belonging to the A4U: the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Charles III University of Madrid, Pompeu Fabra University and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which will join in future editions.

The degree programme, which will enjoy a mobility grant programme made available entirely by the "la Caixa" Foundation, is a four-year degree course whose students will incur substantial mobility: their studies will take place between Barcelona and Madrid, the seat of the four centres belonging to the A4U, and stages abroad will also be promoted.

On the occasion of the start of the classes the inauguration ceremony took place today, the first part of which consisted of a greeting to the students by rectors José M. Sanz (UAM), Daniel Peña (UC3M), and Jaume Casals (UPF). Next, Josep Joan Moreso, professor of Philosophy of Law and former UPF rector (2005-2013) gave the inaugural lecture "Acerca de la textura de nuestras sociedades" ("About the texture of our societies").

> Inaugural lecture (document pdf, 6 pages, 47.2 Kb)

The second part consisted of a press conference for the presentation of the mobility grants programme by the three rectors and Juan Jesús Donaire, vice-rector for Teaching Staff and Academic Planning of the UAB, representing the universities of the A4U, accompanied by Antoni Castellà, secretary for Universities and Research of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia, and Enric Banda, director of the Science, Research and Environment area of the "la Caixa" Foundation.

600,000 euros in mobility grants

In order to help students keep on top of their studies and cope with such a degree of mobility, according to their academic results and in accordance with the principles of equal opportunities, the A4U and the "la Caixa" Foundation have signed a collaboration agreement. Pursuant to this, the latter will provide a total funding of 600,000 euros, which will be used to award between 100 and 200 grants and ensure that economic difficulties do not hinder pursuing the degree.

The collaboration agreement, signed recently by the UPF rector, Jaume Casals, representing the A4U, and Jaume Lanaspa, executive director of the "la Caixa" Foundation, establishes that this economic contribution shall be made over a period of four years corresponding to the next four academic years, broken down as follows: 60,000 euros (between 10 and 20 grants) for the 2013-2014 academic year; 120,000 euros (between 20 and 40 grants) for 2014-2015; 180,000 euros (between 30 and 60 grants) for 2015-2016 and 240,000 euros (between 40 and 80 grants) for 2016-2017.

The signed agreement sets out that the A4U will provide all of the human, material and technical resources necessary to implement the new degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and the announcement of the grants. UPF, as a representative of the Alliance, is the institution responsible for the entire economic and administrative management of the grants.

A pioneer degree in the Spanish university system

The universities Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Charles III of Madrid (UC3M) and the Autonomous of Madrid (UAM), members of the Alliance of 4 Universities, have decided to launch the joint degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, a qualification with a long tradition in Anglo-Saxon universities taught at some fifty institutions of reference.

Its main goal is to train professionals who will be able to pursue their activities in public and private institutions, with a solid base in political sciences and economics and the strong critical and moral analysis skills provided by the humanities, philosophy in particular.

The design of a joint degree offers several major advantages for its implementation as it is created from existing resources, with no added costs for premises, with minimal investment in new teaching staff and with notable synergies with degrees already approved. Therefore, from an economic point of view, it is a feasible approach in times of limited resources.

Offering a vision of the social sciences from different perspectives enables providing the students with different tools to analyse an increasingly global, complex, connected world. Thus, the future graduates' job placement could be in such different fields as politics, journalism, industry, education, business management, consultancy and public relations, the diplomatic service, autonomous and local government, and international bodies, among others.

With a course load of 240 ECTS, the degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics consists of basic training subjects, compulsory subjects, seminars dealing with cases, specialization tracks (economics, political sciences and law and philosophy, humanities and communication), external internships, mobility programmes and a bachelor's degree final project.

The subjects will be taught in Catalan, Spanish or English (depending on the subject) and the price of the first year at UPF is 1,656 euros.

With regard to the degree structure, the first year is taught entirely at UPF, the academic coordinator of the degree. In the assignment in the month of June of the university entrance application process for the 2013-2014 academic year, each of the 21 places available at UPF received 5.65 applications, with an admission mark of 11.93, the second highest at the University. In addition to these are the ten offered by the UC3M (with an admission mark of 12.018, the highest at this University) and the ten places at the UAM (admission mark of 10.718), making a total of 41 places on the new degree.

Madrid is the students' destination for the second academic year (one semester at the UC3M and the other at the UAM), while the third year promotes international mobility. Finally, the fourth year is dedicated to the bachelor's degree final project at one of the participating universities, or possibly at one of the exchange centres. The students will complete their training with optional subjects and specialization tracks (in Spain or abroad), with the possibility of doing an external internship programme.

41 students from the whole of the Spanish State

The 41 students of the first joint degree of the A4U, the first degree programme taught jointly between the universities of two different autonomous communities, began their academic activities today on the Ciutadella campus at Pompeu Fabra University, where they will follow the whole of the first academic year.

As for the profile of these 41 students, 90.2% are under 18 years of age; 7.3% between 19 and 20, and 2.4% are over 30. By gender, 46.3% are men and 53.7% are women, while if we look at their place of origin, 39% come from the province of Barcelona, 7% from the rest of Catalonia, 27% from the province of Madrid, and 27% from the rest of the Spanish State.