The UPC: 50 years with no limits
The UPC was officially established on 11 March 50 years ago. The year-long programme to celebrate the University’s 50th anniversary will end in December. It includes a series of activities for the entire university community that aim to raise awareness of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to demonstrate the University’s commitment to society.
Mar 10, 2021
You can now visit the anniversary website to see the updated programme of activities. The website also includes a photographic exhibition that shows the most important milestones in the history of the institution: from its creation as the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona in 1971 to the consolidation of the UPC with its network of schools within Catalonia.
Over these years, the UPC, the university of architecture, science, engineering and technology, has become one of the leading universities in Catalonia. It was created as the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona (UPB) in 1971 by assembling a number of technical schools, some of which were centuries old, that had laid the foundations of the technical revolution of the 19th century through industrial and architectural training. The University initially comprised the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB), the Terrassa School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIT), the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and several research institutes. However, the oldest school and the first piece of the UPC as we know it today was the Barcelona School of Nautical Studies, which was created in 1769. The School’s first director was Sinibald de Mas, a seaman born in 1736 in Torredembarra who started sailing at the age of 14.
Since the creation of the UPC as a university in the 1970s, new schools have merged to make the University what it is today: a knowledge hub with 18 schools, 206 research groups, almost 30,000 students, 3,317 members of the teaching and research staff and 2,052 members of the administration and service staff.
In 1984, the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona changed its name to Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya to reflect its broader presence in Catalonia, which is one of its distinguishing features. Today, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) has several campuses, which are located in 7 Catalan cities: Barcelona, Castelldefels, Manresa, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltrú.
To date, the UPC has graduated 140,000 people. Currently offers teaches 64 bachelor’s degrees, 75 master’s degrees, 45 doctoral programmes and 45 lifelong learning programmes. Knowledge transfer is one of the main focuses of activity at the UPC, which raised 58 million euros for R&D&I and technology transfer projects in 2019. In addition to being a leading university in teaching and research and technology transfer, and standing out in the main international rankings, the UPC has a graduate employment rate of 93%.
