Materials Science and Engineering

Description

The UPC’s Department of Materials Science, the unit responsible for organising and promoting doctoral degree courses in Materials Science and Metallurgy, was created by bringing together the Chairs in Metallurgy and Iron and Steel Technology of the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB) and professors from the materials science and metallurgical engineering knowledge area of the Terrassa School of Industrial Engineering and the technical schools of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Manresa and Terrassa. Professors from the textile area have now joined the Department, and the Manresa section is no longer associated with it.

Before the enactment of the University Reform Law (which led to the formation of the Department), the ETSEIB Chairs in Metallurgy and Iron and Steel Technology were already teaching doctoral courses, and several doctoral theses were supervised and defended in this context. At that time, this kind of academic activity was relatively uncommon in higher technical schools.

The formation of the Department and the recruitment of new professors, who brought extensive experience in other areas of materials science (polymers, ceramics and composites), paved the way for the creation and consolidation of a doctoral programme that has now been running for over 30 years. Over this time, the programme has gradually evolved. Its structure and content have been adapted based on the experience gained and lessons learned through programme delivery, the research areas that have taken shape and become firmly established in the Department, and successive changes in the regulatory framework.

The programme offered 15 doctoral courses within the framework of Royal Decree 778/1998. To adapt to Royal Decree 56/2005, almost all of these courses were included in the master's programme in Materials Science and Engineering, which later evolved into the new master's degree in Materials Science and Advanced Materials Engineering (validated in 2019). This master’s degree currently includes 22 subjects (compulsory and optional, distributed over two years of study), and graduates are eligible for direct admission to the doctoral programme. Alternatively, these subjects may be taken as bridging courses by students who need additional training in view of their entrance qualification.

The doctoral programme was recognised with a quality award given by the Spanish Ministry of Education in 2003 (MCD2003-00150), the year the programme was launched, and the award was renewed in the following years (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). The programme was later granted a Pathway to Excellence award (MEE2011-0471), which remained in effect until 2013. The Pathway to Excellence programme ended in 2013, and a new system for assessing the quality of doctoral programmes has not yet been introduced. In Catalonia, to the best of our knowledge, this doctoral programme is the only one focusing on structural materials that has been granted a Pathway to Excellence award. (The only other programme to receive this recognition focuses on functional materials).

It is also a source of pride for us that our doctoral programme was selected to participate in the Erasmus Mundus Joint European Doctoral Programme in Materials Science and Engineering. This programme, which was validated almost as a matter of course, emerged directly from the UPC’s doctoral programme in Materials Science and Engineering, with the exception of the requirement to take a number of bridging course credits (up to 30) and complete a period of study at one of the other participating universities: Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), Linköping University (Sweden), the University of Lorraine (France) and Saarland University (Saarbrücken, Germany). The Erasmus Mundus doctoral programme is a continuation of the Erasmus Mundus master's degree in Advanced Materials Science and Engineering (AMASE), which is delivered by the same universities and has been renewed three times by the European Commission.