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Quality of the degrees
Design of the degrees

Course structure

The structure of university courses has been defined by the Spanish State as having three cycles: bachelor's degree, university master's degree and doctoral degree, as shown in the following image.

Bachelor's degree

It enables students to obtain the official degree certificate and obtain general training in one or more disciplines designed to prepare them for a professional career. To achieve this, they need to have passed 240 credits.

All degrees are attached to one of the following branches of knowledge:

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Sciences
  • Health Sciences
  • Social and Legal Sciences
  • Engineering and Architecture

The course plan contains a minimum of 60 basic training ECTS credits of which at least 36 are linked to subjects in the branch of knowledge to under which the degree falls. Also, all bachelor's degrees include a final bachelor's degree project that may have between 6 and 30 ECTS credits.

When a bachelor's degree is verified with mentions, to give the degree a certain specialization, they appear in the degree that the student obtains. Mentions may have between 30 and 90 ECTS credits.

Master's degree

The aim of master's degree courses is that students obtain advanced specialist or multidisciplinary training designed for academic or professional specialization, or to promote the start of research tasks.

To obtain a university master's degree, students need to pass a minimum of 60 credits. However, some master's degrees course plans may increase the number of credits that they have to pass to a maximum of 120.

University master's degrees can be verified with specializations. If this is the case, they will appear in the degree obtained by the student. Their number of credits will be a minimum of 9 ECTS credits for a master's degree of 60 credits and a maximum of 45 ECTS credits for a master's degree of 120 ECTS credits.

Doctoral degree

The aim of doctoral degree courses is to give students advanced training in research techniques. These may include courses, seminars or other activities aimed at research training, the aim of which is the creation and presentation of the corresponding doctoral thesis comprising an original research paper.

Passing this gives students the right to be awarded a doctorate, which continues to be the maximum academic degree.