Since its creation, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) wanted to be able to offer Medicine in its educational program, a degree with a high cost and that requires a connection with a hospital. 12 years ago, it began to teach it, but it did so hand in hand with another center, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which already had an agreement with Hospital del Mar.
The experience gained since 2008 and its consolidation in the university field have allowed the UPF to start offering the Medicine degree independently starting next academic year, maintaining the alliance with Hospital del Mar, but without having to resort to the UAB to be able to teach it. "It has not been easy," explains the Vice-Rector for Faculty and Community Relations, Pablo Pareja, "but the UPF has never abandoned its aspiration to have its own Medicine degree."
With the new degree, the UPF will concentrate teaching, as it has done until now, and practicals at the Campus del Mar, no longer depending on the UAB to cover subjects for which it did not have the necessary spaces, such as a dissection room. On the other hand, the relationship between Hospital del Mar and the students will increase, not only by actively participating in practicals, but also in the design of subjects and the selection of faculty.
The investment to launch the degree is around 14.06 million euros and will be distributed over the next eight years, the period necessary to extinguish the old degree. This figure includes the habilitation of new classrooms, the acquisition of necessary material, and the hiring of faculty and administrative staff, as well as the amortizations it has to pay to the UAB for the expenses they jointly incurred to start this training.
This September, a total of 30 students will begin to study the new Medicine degree, an offer that will increase in the coming years, reaching 50, losing ten places from those offered in the degree shared with the UAB. The tuition price is 1,800 euros.
With the places already assigned and the cut-off marks published, Pareja is happy with the good reception the degree has had among high school students. A total of 400 people have applied for it, a figure that translates into nine applicants for each available place. The cut-off mark has been set at 13.098, one of the ten highest in Catalonia, as is usually the case every year with Medicine. The UPF has only been surpassed by the Campus Clínic of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), where the cut-off mark was 13.146, and has been ahead of the UAB (12.828) and the Campus Bellvitge of the UB (12.988).
More interdisciplinarity and technology
The UPF has wanted to incorporate changes in the Medicine degree to better prepare students, taking into account current health needs and the changing trends that are occurring, Pareja emphasizes. The center has opted to give it a more interdisciplinary character, taking advantage of its wide range of training. Students will be encouraged to also train in biology, ethics, law, economics or public policies through optional subjects and by integrating this vision into the course design.
It has also been decided that the healthcare world that is taught will be more adapted to current practice, where technology is gaining ground. In this way, the autopsy room and the dissection room have been rethought, incorporating more screens, among other measures. Likewise, primary care, which has proven key in pandemic management, will be one of the central axes in the new UPF degree, expanding the internships that students do in CAPs.
La Ciutadella, future scientific hub of the city
Both the UPF's Campus del Mar and Hospital del Mar are integrated into the area that the future Ciutadella del Coneixement is to occupy, an initiative that aims to transform this area of the city and provide it with a new scientific centrality. The new UPF Medicine degree reinforces this project, and will also benefit from it, thanks to the new research center that the university will build in the Old Fish Market and which will be dedicated to planetary well-being, a concept that refers to the improvement of the health and well-being of people, society, and the environment.
Also adding to this is the expansion that Hospital del Mar plans to undertake with the support of Next Generation funds. The center plans to build a new 22,500 square meter building, partly resolving current space problems. 75 beds and a new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 18 beds can be added, a key issue for the hospital with the fewest ICU beds per inhabitant in the city.