THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CATALONIA

The Technical University of Catalonia is a public university that specialises in the fields of architecture, engineering, merchant seamanship, economics, health sciences and applied mathematics. UPC was founded in March 1971. Shortly before, on 4 August 1970, the General Law of Education and funding for the reform of the education system had been passed. This Law had implications for the entire education system from primary schooling right up to university level. It established that the universities would be self-governing and would themselves determine control and assessment procedures, teaching systems and the relative importance of teaching and research. In addition, the Law stipulated that the universities would take responsibility for the management and administration of their facilities and services. The Technical University of Barcelona, as it was called then, was at first made up of the Schools of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona and Terrassa, the School of Architecture of Barcelona and a number of research institutes. The same year, 1971, also saw the creation of the School of Telecommunications Engineering. However, the first true antecedent of our university was even earlier with the foundation of the Higher Technical Institute (Institut Politecnic Superior) in 1968. This Institute grouped together the state technical schools already in existence in Barcelona. These schools had a great tradition and their origin can be traced back in some cases to the mid-19th century. One example is the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, which was founded in October 1851. Vctor de Buen, president of the Higher Technical Institute, was also the first rector of the Technical University of Barcelona. The General Law of Education and funding of the reform of the education system also made provision for incorporation into the university structure of the Colleges of Engineering and Architecture. In 1972, the Colleges of Engineering of Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltr, the College of Technical Architecture of Barcelona and the College of Mining Engineering of Manresa were all incorporated into the Technical University of Barcelona. That same year the Colleges of Agricultural Engineering of Girona and Lleida, which had been officially established some time before, began to function. In 1972, Gabriel Ferrat i Pascual was made rector of the Technical University of Barcelona, a position he was to occupy until 1976, when he was made General Director of Universities in Madrid. He was replaced by Julia Fernndez Ferrer, who was rector until 1978, when Gabriel Ferrat was once again elected rector and remained in the position until 1994. The range of courses given by the Technical University of Barcelona continued to grow. In 1972, the Manresa College began to offer diploma courses in Industrial Engineering and was renamed the Technical College of Manresa; a little later, the College of Agricultural Engineering of Girona was also incorporated into the Technical University of Barcelona, and full degree courses began at Lleida in addition to the diploma courses which had been on offer up till then. The School of Civil Engineering of Barcelona opened its doors in 1974. Two years later, in March 1976, Barcelona School of Informatics was founded. A Ministerial Order of 7 October 1977 led to the establishment of the College of Optics of Terrassa and, two years later in the Sabadell-Terrassa region the School of Architecture of the Valles was set up, which would later transfer to the Sant Cugat del Valles area in 1991. Given its wide regional presence, the Technical University of Barcelona changed its name in 1984 and became the Technical University of Catalonia. On 25 August 1983 the Law of University Reform (LRU) was passed, which cleared the way for preparation of the Statutes of the Technical University of Catalonia, which were approved by decree 232/1985 of 4 July 1985. The Statutes gave the University the matrixtype structure it still maintains to this day. The University Senate meeting of 18 May 1987 approved the organization of the University in 41 departments. On 19 December 1984, the Parliament of Catalonia approved the Law of University Coordination and Creation of the Boards of Trustees. In December 1985, Pere Duran Farell was named first president of the Board of Trustees of the Technical University of Catalonia, a position he occupied until the end of 1993. The position is currently occupied by Miquel Roca i Junyent. The University continued to grow. In 1990, with a decree passed by the Generalitat of Catalonia, the School of Nautical Studies was incorporated into the University and its name was changed to the Faculty of Nautical Studies of Barcelona. The following year saw the establishment of the Technical College of the Baix Llobregat, provisionally based at Sant Just Desvern, offering a diploma course in TeleCommunications Engineering. Finally, in 1992, the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics was established, which offers the diploma course in Statistics which had been initiated in the 1990-1991 academic year at the Barcelona School of Informatics, and also the new Degree in Mathematics. In that same year, the universities of Girona and Lleida were established and the Technical University of Catalonia's colleges in these two cities were incorporated into the new universities. In recent years, our University has implemented new organizational and administration systems, with notable success. One outcome of this has been the establishment of such bodies as the Association of Friends of UPC, Edicions UPC, UPCNET and the UPC Foundation, which made it possible to create the School of Photography in 1994 and the School of Multimedia in 1997. Our attention to efficient management has not meant turning a blind eye to the problems of the developing countries. A total of 0.7% of UPC's income is allocated to the Centre for Development Cooperation, which has initiated numerous cooperation projects, mainly in Latin American countries. The development of our range of courses, along with the Generalitat of Catalonia's Four-year Investment Plan, especially in the 1989- 1992 period, has led to a major improvement and expansion in UPC facilities. Examples are the new North Campus, the School of Architecture at Sant Cugat and the School of Optics at Terrassa, and also the extensions to the Manresa and Vilanova i la Geltr Colleges. We aim to offer high-quality training and education leading to prestigious degrees and diplomas, courses which will provide our students with a full education as human beings, whilst promoting an enterprising approach to prepare them for the new technologies that are bound to emerge in the future. The Technical University of Catalonia is committed to the development of our country and therefore we are strengthening continuing education through the UPC Foundation and we are working to build a new campus at Castelldefels, a campus destined to meet the wide demand for engineering graduates in the Barcelona and Baix Llobregat area. With regard to research and technology trans- fer, our intention is that our Technology Transfer Centre should be perceived as the R&D department of the country's industrial sector, thus achieving economic self-sufficiency for the majority of our research work. We are currently working in over 250 research lines, and we have a very high and growing number of specific research centres and regional technology centres that focus their research on the demands of social players in specific areas and lines. Construction of the Technology Centres at Manresa and Vilanova i la Geltr was completed this past academic year. C/ Jordi Girona, 31. 08034 Barcelona. Swithboard: +34 93 401 62 00. General information: +34 93 401 73 96