• University Nursing School del Mar
• Bonanova Vocational Healthcare Training School
• UDIMAS. Faculty of Medicine. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Residents' training programme

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Universitat Pompeu Fabra

New biology, and especially the development of molecular and biotechnology techniques, is having a strong impact on all areas of research into biology and the Health and Life Sciences.

Biology studies at the UPF possess some very clear differentiating features with regard to their orientation, duration and organisation.

Orientation of the studies

Our biology studies, having a human biology profile, are oriented towards bio-healthcare and prepare training courses related to the future careers in this field, such as in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, clinical analysis laboratories and biomedical research.

Duration and sequencing of the studies

In other Catalan universities, and in many Spanish universities, a Biology degree is taught over four years. Our biology studies last for five years, divided into two academic cycles, which allows the programmed number of credits to be taken in a more relaxed and suitable way. 

Furthermore , the sequencing of the studies also has its own characterising features: As the students progress through their course, they are offered more optional subjects, and the last year is essentially a practical one. In this last year, most of the students' teaching activity is carried out in public or private centres related to their studies.

Organisation of the studies

The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, the centre responsible for biology studies, has invested in teaching of the highest quality for its educational project, as well giving priority to the wellbeing of its students. In 2002, the Catalan Government awarded it the Jaume Vicens i Vives distinction for quality university teaching.

To attain these goals, all of the teaching processes of biology studies have a unified planning, coordination and assessment, directed by an educational body created for this purpose. The biology studies are carried out following the most dynamic and successful educational strategies and methodologies, characterised by:

1. High importance given to the learning of practical skills, and not only theoretical knowledge.
2. Increased active, rather than passive, learning, involving the student more.
3. The encouragement of work and study habits to last throughout the student's lifetime, by setting aside the necessary time when planning the teaching programme.
4. An education in which each student has a tutor for guidance throughout the whole of the course, to benefit his/her academic progress.
5. The use of new technologies, especially IT, in the teaching processes, making habitual use of the Global Campus in all the subjects of the curriculum.
6. A unified, reliable, valid and objective system for the assessment of academic performance, in which the students have the maximum information possible for monitoring their results.
7. Cordial relations among all of the members of the university community: Students, teachers, administration and service staff, encouraging the wellbeing of all.

• Web Faculty of Health and Life Sciences