La Cañada campus, five kilometres from Almería along the Mediterranean coastline, is home to all the schools of the Universidad de Almeria (UAL), with the exception of the School of Labour Relations which is located in the city itself. Because of the University’s spectacular growth in the last few years, the campus has been totally renovated. The plans for the new buildings housing the Rectorate, the Central Hall, the Health Sciences and Neurosciences Centre and the R+D+i buildings will complete the UAL’s new image in the near future.

The University was officially created by the Andalusian Parliament in September 1993. Since then, it has earned a reputation as a dynamic, forward-looking community with the momentum to face future challenges with confidence. Adaptation to the European Higher Education Area is now regarded as the main challenge, and the UAL has introduced pilot courses in many of its degrees in preparation for the convergence process.

The UAL already has 17 degrees which are being adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). During the 2008/2009 academic year, UAL piloted the following degrees for adaptation to the EHEA: Degrees and Diplomas Diploma in Nursing, Environmental Sciences, Law, Psychology, Music Teacher Training, Management Information Technology, Agriculture and the Agricultural and Food Industries, Diploma in Physiotherapy, English Philology, Hispanic Philology, Infant Teacher Training, Primary Teacher Training, Chemistry Market Research and Techniques, Mechanical Engineering, Psychopedagogy, Physical Education Teacher Training.

The UAL’s new R+D+i buildings are currently under construction. The PITA (Almeria Science and Technology Park) will be primarily given over to technology-based companies. In the process of awarding space in the Park, preference will be given to companies with UAL teachers, researchers, and services staff, and to UAL graduates. The PITA site will also house the Arid Areas Experimental Station (EEZA), the Scientific Research Council (CSIC), the Information and Communication Technologies Research Centre (CITIC, the second stage of which has already been put out to tender), and the Solar Energy Research Centre (CIESOL), which is already fully operational. These centres will form the support core for the scientific side of the park. Nearby are the UAL’s Scientific and Technical Buildings and the Technical Research Services Support Building. The investment on this new construction amounts to over €4 million. In the next few years, the UAL will house the Andalusian Centre for the Assessment and Follow-up of Global Change (CAESCG), which will establish the University as a regional leader in climate change research. Research linked to renewable energies The UAL has launched several projects to support research into renewable energies. The Research Centre for Solar Energy (CIESOL) is already in operation. The University is a member of the foundation that will manage and exploit the Centre for Renewable Energies in Andalusia, which has a site in Almeria next to the Tabernas Solar Platform.

The University has a theatre workshop, a choir, music groups, a folk group, brass band, jazz big band, a film club and a Sports Office, which organizes numerous sporting activities every year for the whole university community. The UAL has a sports hall and a sports centre which opened last year and houses the new sports complex, an indoor Olympic swimming pool, a training pool for physiotherapy students, a gymnasium, and new multi-purpose courts. This academic year a bicycle loan service is available, with two pick-up points in the city and racks on campus. To use this service, students must obtain a magnetic ID card issued by the sports office.

The UAL demonstrated its firm commitment to internationalization with the creation of the Vice-rectorate for International Relations in 1999 and the inclusion of a guideline for international relations in its strategic plan (guideline nº 5). The new Vice-rectorate for Internationalization and Cooperation, set up in 2007, has set the following objectives for its international policy: Objective 5.1: to make the university community aware of the importance of internationalization Objective 5.2: to develop bilingual teaching and to increase proficiency in a second language (preferably English) Objective 5.3: to increase the UAL’s international activity in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, with special attention to Mediterranean and Latin American countries Objective 5.4: to increase alternative sources of financing, both public and private, to promote the UAL’s international profile Objective 5.5: to increase mobility among UAL members Objective 5.6: to promote stays at UAL by members of foreign universities Objective 5.7: to increase the UAL’s participation in international bodies and networks and its involvement in international development and cooperation

The new governance building is currently under construction and will open during this academic year. The campus houses four lecture-room blocks, four scientific and technical buildings (CITE), departmental buildings, the “Nicolás Salmerón” Library, technical services laboratories, and the practical training centres. Some three kilometres away from the campus, UAL members carry out practicals and research at the Experimental Farm, the farm covers more than six hectares, with four hectares of greenhouse space, and possesses the latest technical equipment in the field of intensive agriculture. UNIVERSITY DAY CARE CENTRE The University has its own campus day care centre, run by a disabled association. The centre has 110 places, as it operates on a double shift basis (morning and afternoon), it can care for a total of 220 children. Although the beneficiaries are mainly children of UAL staff, a number of places are offered to families not attached to the University. The nursery was set up with the help of the Andalusian Government’s Welfare Department, Almeria City Council and the UAL. The facilities include nine classrooms, a multi-purpose room, canteen, toilets and 460 sq.m of garden with play areas. It is an environmentally-friendly building, constructed with natural materials and designed to make optimal use of sunlight. It has air conditioning, voice and data recording systems, video camera security, computer-controlled access and intranet cameras in classrooms.

The UAL was one of the pioneers in Spain in the use of wireless technology throughout the campus. Wi-fi technology allows students to access the Internet with their laptop anywhere on campus, whether indoors or outdoors. Its coastal location, a climate with very mild temperatures and over three hundred days of sunshine a year, together with the comprehensive range of services available on campus, make the University an ideal environment for university study.

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