Master's Degree in Challenges of Cities

The Master in City Challenges is offered within the scope of the UNISF Project (Universidade Sem Fronteiras), led by the Universidade do Minho and developed by the respective consortium with the participation of the three universities in northern Portugal (UMinho, UPorto and UTAD ) and the three universities of the Galician University System (USC, UVigo, UDC).

Its general objective is to improve the capacity of universities and public authorities for the creation of joint degrees between Galicia and northern Portugal, and the consolidation of the Border Area for Higher Education and Research in the Euro-region. It is, therefore, an international and inter-university Master, and it is a unique offer both in the Spanish context and in the Portuguese context.

Its marked multidisciplinary and international character, and above all the profile of the student body to which it is addressed, which comes from different countries and which, in many cases, will already be an active professional, suggests teaching the title in blended mode.

When establishing the admission criteria, the provisions of article 17 of RD 1393/2007, of October 29, and in ECI Order 3858/2007, of December 27, will be taken into account.

Students who want to be admitted to the Master in Cities Challenges must be in possession of a university degree that gives access to master's studies.

The public to which the master's degree is directed is identified, fundamentally, with: graduates; senior public officials, in particular serving municipalities, regional and national institutions; private senior management, particularly of consulting companies with intervention in public and private entities with intervention in the development and planning of the territory; as well as managers and leaders with intervention in cities, who directly support political leaders.

Students enrolled in the course will gain a broad understanding of both contemporary urban debates, their diversities and possible developments, as well as policies, plans and interventions. Likewise, you will acquire skills to develop your skills in public institutions (municipalities or other territorial management entities) or in companies involved in the development of the territory. Therefore, the main objectives of the Master are:

1) Ensure advanced training of professionals in the field of urban policies, planning and urbanism, analyzing, diagnosing and proposing measures in areas related to the construction of sustainable, intelligent, efficient, resilient and inclusive cities;

2) Obtain synergies from experiences in higher training courses in the fields of city, development and planning, in order to provide more solid responses to the challenges in these areas at a regional level, both in Spain and Portugal, as in other countries, especially in Africa and Latin America;

3) Provide students with the skills for professional practice of excellence and for the development of research activities, in the field of thesis research projects;

4) Promote the interaction and mobility of students and teachers between six universities in northern Portugal and Galicia.

The master's degree incorporates the blended-learning methodology to delve into the idea of a renewal of pedagogical methods and respond to this need for more flexible studies that allow lifelong training. In this way, all subjects, except the External Practices and the Master's Thesis (TFM), include among their methodologies and training activities some that require in-person attendance, this being understood as the physical presence of teachers and students with a specific time schedule and the face-to-face direction of a teacher in the classrooms. The contact hours of these training activities will be taught synchronously from the master's classrooms of the university to which the teacher belongs. This will establish presence in the classroom of the students enrolled in said university, and the remote connection, from wherever they are, of the rest of the students. The asynchronous part of the training activities will mobilize resources and online teaching content, such as discussion forums, recorded content, application of questionnaires, among others. In line with the blended-learning nature, the training activities will be of four types in the master's degree: directed, supervised, autonomous learning and tutoring.

On the other hand, it is considered necessary to carry out moments of interrelation between all the students of the six universities, as well as between them and the teaching staff as a whole. For this reason, all courses will plan days of face-to-face meetings that will be held on a rotating basis in each of the six universities, alternating their celebration on both sides of the “border”. These days will be used to maintain face-to-face tutoring by subject, to carry out the initial orientation and welcome of new students, to present and submit each TFM project to a collective discussion, and for the final public defense of the TFM.

The master's degree offers a broad curriculum that covers a robust theoretical framework, highly focused on the latest developments and on issues related to the consideration of different scenarios and the perspectives of evolution and action. Given the context of the future challenges that cities face in the disciplinary and scientific fields of Engineering, Geography, Urban Planning and other sciences, the development of a master's degree proposal, differentiating and attractive, has taken into account the structure of the course an option of weighted balance between all of them.

The master's degree will consist of 3 semesters, with 30 ECTS each. The semesters are organized into Dimensions or Curricular Units (UC) that address and deepen the debate and knowledge about urban challenges, aligned with the challenges contemplated by the JCR, within the scope of its Knowledge Center for Territorial Policies. This, in its latest publication of 2019 – “The future of cities”, identifies the challenges that are reflected in the structure of the curriculum. The 6 Dimensions or Scientific Areas, which include the domains of support for a sustainable city, with quality of life, are: Physical dimension, Social dimension, Environmental dimension, Technological dimension, Political dimension and Economic dimension.

In the first semester, of 30 ECTS, a subject of 5 ECTS is proposed for each of the 6 areas/dimensions. The 6 subjects of this semester will be mandatory for all students of the master's degree. Each subject will have a coordinator as the person in charge, and with the participation of two professors: one from one of the universities in Galicia, and another from one of the universities in the north of Portugal. In the second semester, students will also take 30 ECTS. At this stage, the master's study plan will offer 12 subjects of 5 ECTS each, 2 for each of the areas of the first semester. Each student will choose one of the areas, with the intention of deepening their knowledge, which must be related to the scientific area of the future Master's Thesis (TFM) to be developed in the third semester. Of the 12 optional subjects, the student will choose 4: 2 subjects must belong to the specific area in which they wish to deepen their knowledge and subsequently develop the TFM; and the other 2 subjects to the remaining five areas. Each of these last 2 subjects must be assigned to a different area. In addition to taking these 4 subjects of 5 ECTS each, students will have to take 2 more subjects, of a mandatory nature, to reach the 30 ECTS of the second semester: (1) External internships (in institutions or companies), of 5 ECTS; and (2) Research Methodologies and Dissertation Preparation, of 5 ECTS. The subject “Research Methodologies and Dissertation Plan” is essential support to begin the preparation of the TFM. For this reason, it will be developed in a tutorial manner.

The third semester, with 30 ECTS, is intended for the preparation of the TFM which will be directed by two professors, one from one of the Portuguese universities and the other from one of the Galician universities.

The Master is committed to the training of:

1) Professionals in the field of urban policies, planning and urbanism, in areas related to the planning and management of sustainable, intelligent, efficient, resilient and inclusive cities;

2) Professionals capable of participating in the construction of analytical cities, through the development of innovative solutions for the collection, processing and analysis of city data that promote greater sustainability in their management and governance in parallel with a more active citizenry and participatory;

3) Professionals capable of identifying and analyzing the individual, social and spatial factors that influence the adoption of sustainable lifestyles, and their relationship with health and well-being;

4) Professionals capable of designing policies and intervention programs that promote solutions that improve environmental sustainability, human health and social cohesion;

5) Professionals capable of participating in the design of a governance model that guarantees the right to the city, through urban policies that promote public-private and public-community relations;

6) Researchers capable of identifying and studying the challenges of cities.