Along the lines of programmes already existing in other countries, in October 2004 the UdG created its own graduate programme in business innovation and technology management. As of the coming academic year 2006/2007, the masters will be officially recognised and adapted to the European Higher Education Area. It is the first official masters in Spain dealing with innovation in business.

The programme is developed mostly in English, is aimed at students from any country in the world, and relies on the collaboration of lecturers invited from prestigious universities. In the first two editions collaborating participants have come from various educational institutions, among which stand out: Malardalens University (Sweden), Cranfield University, Cardiff University, and the University of Sussex (United Kingdom), Univ. Louis Pasteur-Strasbourg (France) and the University of Alberta (Canada), the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores of Monterrey (Mexico), ITAM (Mexico), the University of Valencia, the University of Leon and University Jaume I.

Educational objectives

The masters programme consists of 60 ECTS credits and provides specialisation in business innovation and technology management. It has an interdisciplinary orientation and an international vocation and is aimed at students from different disciplines who wish to acquire the skills necessary to carry out activities related to innovation management in all types of organisations: development processes for new products or services, management tasks in R+D departments, innovation promotion programmes in private organisations or in the public administration, etc.

This masters programme can be professionally-based or research-based, depending on the subjects taken and related assessment processes, and the type of masters project undertaken. In the case of the research orientation, students will also acquire the knowledge required to deal with research development in related fields: economics and innovation management, quality management, productive process planning, analysis of the economic impact of new technologies, business strategies, etc.

Curriculum structure and description of the skills developed

During the programme the students will work to improve or develop a wide variety of skills: the ability to search for specialised information, the mastery of process management, the mastery of innovation management techniques, creativity, project management, teamwork and leaderships skills, the development of enterprising initiative, cross-cultural communication, international business management and the assessment of the economic impact of new technologies.

Students can choose to follow one of two tracks: business or technology and production. To complete the course requirements, students will have to take all the compulsory subjects in addition to all the optional subjects stipulated in the track description.

Instrumental Module(12 ECTS): cross-disciplinary undergraduate and graduate programme subjects.

Specific compulsory subjects (15 ECTS):

• Organisational dynamics (3 ECTS credits)
• Innovation management in companies (4.5 ECTS credits)
• Legal aspects of innovation (3 ECTS credits)
• Innovation in the productive system (4.5 ECTS credits)

Optional subjects (18 ECTS) to be chosen from:

* Business track

• Organisational economics (6 ECTS credits)
• Digital economy and companies with network externalities (3 ECTS credits),
• Quality management (3 ECTS credits)
• Technology strategies and competitiveness (3 ECTS credits)

* Technology and production track

• Extended enterprise planning (3 ECTS credits)
• Product and process engineering (3 ECTS credits)
• Technology assessment (3 ECTS credits)
• Quality management (3 ECTS credits)

* Other subjects

• Knowledge management (3 ECTS credits)
• Organisational information systems (3 ECTS credits)

Masters project / research work (15 ECTS)

Calendar and Timetable

Subjects taught from October 2006 to May 2007
Research work or end of study project from June to September 2007

Location

The masters programme will take place on the Montilivi Campus of the University of Girona. Students from other universities interested in the UdG can find general information about the campus and the university at http://gigs.udg.edu

Timetable

Afternoons, 5.00 to 9.00

Faculty profile

Most of the UdG lecturers, as well as the guest lecturers, have taken part in previous editions of this programme. Before it was adapted to the European Higher Education Area when it was a PhD programme, it obtained the Ministry of Education and Science Quality Distinction Award in July 2005.

The UdG lecturers come from four different departments but the central core of the programme is formed by lecturers and researchers from the UdG’s Gradient and GREPP research groups. These two groups have joined forces under the name Research Group in Technological Innovation in the Production System (GITASP), and have been recognised as a consolidated research group by the government of Catalonia.

Academic coordinator: Jaume Valls Pasola

Coordination:  Quim de Ciurana Gay

UdG Departments promoting the Masters

Department of Business Organisation and Management and Product Design and the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Construction.

Academic secretary:

Montse Somovilla (secretary of the OGEDP)
E-mail address: montse.somovilla@pas.udg.edu
Telephone: 00 (34) 972 418 765

Additional information on the Masters Programmes web pages:  http://gigs.udg.edu

There is a collaboration agreement with the ASCAMM Foundation which allows students in the masters programme to complete practical research work.

Pre-registration for official masters programmes is expected to be available on-line as of the month of May. Please refer to the web page of the Graduate School soon for further information: http://gigs.udg.edu

Access to this programme is open to anyone who has an official university degree, that is, four or five-years degree graduates, architects, engineers, three-year degree graduates, technical engineers or architectural technologists.

The programme is also open to students meeting the following requirements: three years of studies and a minimum of 180 credits from the current syllabuses that contain all the core requirements of the first cycle of official university studies, on the condition that the completed first cycle is foreseen within thespecific admission conditions established in the official graduate programme.

Likewise, students with foreign university degrees can be admitted to a masters programme if they have obtained prior recognition of any of the degrees required for access to it or, if not, with prior verification that those studies certify a level of academic training equivalent to the official Spanish degrees and authorise access to graduate studies in the country where the degrees were awarded.

The most suitable profiles and previous academic training to successfully complete this masters programme correspond to the following studies: industrial engineering, business administration and management, organisational engineering, economics, telecommunications engineering, computer engineering, all technical engineering programmes, chemistry, biology and environmental sciences.

Students with other scientific, technologic or social science profiles not included in the previous list but who are interested in aspects related with business innovation and technology management are also suitable candidates.

Students must provide certified proof of an adequate level of English to follow instruction in the programme. In the masters programme admissions process priority consideration is given to applications from students with better academic records. The academic committee will, on a case by case basis, specify any additional academic training necessary for acceptance of the applications that do not meet the established admission profile.

In its 2006/2007 edition the masters forms part of the “Tourism, Law and Business” graduate programme and access to the PhD programme is provided by choosing a research profile culminating in some research work (15 ECTS credits) in accordance with the programme’s lines of research. Students entering the doctoral programme will have to complete their theses along one of the programme’sexisting lines of research related to business innovation and technology management. Studentscompleting the “technology and production” track can request admission to PhD studies in the UdG’s official graduate programme in technology if they prefer to write their theses along lines of researchrelated to product and process engineering.

Students wishing to enter the doctoral programme will have to prove that that have a four- or five-year degree or its recognised equivalent, and that they have previous academic training equivalent to that provided in the Masters training modules (minimum of 60 ECTS credits) included in the official graduate programme to which they are applying for admission.

The applications will be reviewed and assessed by the admissions committee of each programme, after receiving a preliminary report from the professor or researcher proposed by the director(s) of the doctoral thesis.