The Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville is a public university with a commitment to quality education. Founded in 1997, the UPO is a single-site campus university set in an area of parkland with many acres of playing fields. The University is an attractive option for students seeking a campus university where they can attend lectures and enjoy student life on one site. Student numbers are carefully controlled and never rise above 60 in the lecture theatres, 20 in the practical sessions and 10 in student seminars. To further facilitate their studies students enjoy good access to new information technologies (with internet connections all over campus), and they are encouraged to participate in supervised internships with a choice of more than 598 companies and to improve their language skills (with courses available in English, French, German, Chinese and Japanese). Students at the UPO acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed in the modern-day workplace.

Established by the Andalusian Parliament in 1997, the University was founded as a higher education institution dedicated to teaching tomorrow’s professionals within a framework of social awareness and international cooperation. Today the University is a mirror of the society in which it operates: its teaching based on comprehensive curricular design, its research an investment in the future, and, its organizational structure fully participative and dynamic. These are the features that define the University.

The UPO acts as a model of European university education in Spain with the introduction of a pilot plan for adapting tertiary education to the new European Higher Education Area. This means that this year most of its undergraduate programs have been converted to EHEA bachelor’s degrees to be taught alongside the EHEA master’s degrees. These changes represent the introduction of a more dynamic system that requires students to take on a more active role in their learning. Additionally, the single-site campus, equipped with the latest in information technology, ensures that students from all disciplines interact, helping to create a truly European university atmosphere. The UPO has recently opened a Graduate Studies Centre with the aim of offering a highly attractive program of quality postgraduate courses. It also seeks to promote the mobility of the students on these courses, with a view to enhancing their international profile. The Graduate Studies Centre offers students a highly innovative selection of programs: 18 master’s programs and 21 PhD programs. For the 2009-2010 academic year, this number is set to increase by over fifty percent with the organisation of highly specialized programs in the fields of biotechnology, criminology and family counselling, among others, many of which will be offered as online or blended-learning courses. The University also runs more than 80 of its own master’s courses and shorter specialized courses. All these postgraduate courses are supported by a scholarship program to help students finance their tuition fees and living expenses.

The UPO is an institution that offers superb research and technological development opportunities. Research lines are currently being developed in 65 highly skilled research groups of considerable standing both nationally and internationally and they are keen to seek partnerships with industry and other social institutions. The University also runs five research centres providing specialized services for carrying out advanced research projects. They include two jointly funded initiatives, the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD), which is the first research centre in Spain dedicated exclusively to this field, and the Andalusian Centre for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine (CABIMER). In addition, the University, together with the municipalities of Seville, Alcala de Guadaira and Dos Hermanas, is engaged in the building of two science and technology parks, in which the University plans to play a leading role with the provision of advanced research services.

The UPO’s academic courses are closely linked to the cultural activities it organizes both on and off campus to complement the education of its students. These activities include theatre, flamenco and video workshops, as well as lectures and exhibitions. In addition to its Seville campus, the University runs a Cultural Centre in the historic centre of the town of Carmona in the province of Seville, where the University’s summer courses and a variety of other activities are held.

Teaching is enhanced with the international mobility programs that enable students to study at universities and firms throughout Europe and America and to receive full academic credit while doing so. This international outlook is reflected by a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent in places on these student programs. Opportunities include the Erasmus program, offering more than 500 places to study in Europe, Atlanticus, with some 30 places in the U.S., Canada and Australia, Mexicalia, under the ANUIES-CRUE agreement, the PIMA program comprising four networks with 15 Latin American universities as well as bilateral programs in the Southern Mediterranean and Latin America. Together they provide a clear example of the University´s commitment to strengthen the necessary process of internationalisation, which is supplemented by over 600 students admitted in 2008-2009 on the Spanish Studies Program.

'The UPO’s single-site campus has over 100,000 square metres of the latest sports facilities, where students can take part in a range of team and individual sports, both popular and minority, including football, rugby, table tennis and badminton. The University’s central library, currently in the first of three projected building phases, provides students with 884 reading, study and research points, and houses some 293,000 volumes, 103,000 print monographs and 190,000 online monographs as well as 1,032 print journals and 17,900 online journals. A high percentage (61%) of all documents in the collection are accessible online. In addition, around 11,500 items of special materials (DVDs, videos, CD-ROMs, slide collections, microfiche, etc.) are available to users. The UPO is committed to introducing new technologies to all areas of university life to facilitate students’ studies and has installed a wi-fi connection throughout the campus so students can access internet and intranet services anywhere on the site. The service is provided on a high-speed computer network that is much faster than the fastest ADSL currently available. The University also provides one computer for every 14 students. UPO students can also study a range of foreign languages, including English, French, German and Chinese at the UPO Language School. The School runs three types of course: year-long courses, 30-hour courses and courses preparing students to sit the Cambridge Business English Certificates (BEC). The University also runs a Centre for Foreign Students that teaches undergraduate courses in Spanish culture and language and international business. The UPO has two halls of residence, one in the city of Seville, in the neighbourhood of Las Letanías, and the other on campus. The first of these, the ''Flora Tristan'' hall of residence, houses 204 students in two-bedroom apartments and makes grants available to those who volunteer to work on social projects in the local community. The second, the ''José Celestino Mutis'' hall of residence has 89 rooms, 60 of which provide shared accommodation. '

In 2001 the University set up the University-Society Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation, designed to promote communication between the University and different social and economic agents. One of the tasks of the Foundation is to help UPO graduates enter the professional job market. This is achieved by the running of internship schemes for students and graduates from all disciplines in companies and institutions. During the 2007-2008 academic year a total of 1,170 internships in 598 companies were arranged for Olavide students. This work is complemented by an alumni support service and a career guidance service.

View larger map

No hay ningún documento en este momento. Puedes buscar documentos de otras universidades con el siguiente Buscador