Master's Degree in Civil Engineering in the Municipal Area

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Title justification

2.1.-JUSTIFICATION OF THE TITLE*:

The degree's focus is primarily professional. A large portion of the Civil Engineering profession's skills are developed in the municipal sphere: from the planning, design, and management of water supply and sanitation networks to solid waste management, including urban design, transportation infrastructure, and flood protection and defense.

This program aims to address the specific training needs of professionals in this field, while also creating a training space that connects engineers with municipal technicians and officials through the interventions and field visits scheduled in the course.

2.2.-ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL, ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL DEMAND*:

In Europe, 74% of the population lives in cities. This proportion, which is expected to stabilize around 82% in the near future, already exceeds 80% in some countries, and in Spain, 75% in Spain. Of the urban population, approximately half lives in cities with between 1,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. Urban planning, infrastructure, and service management are particularly in need of development in small urban centers.

Civil engineers play a crucial role in these three roles within local government (urban planning, infrastructure development, and service management), primarily due to their specific training, which makes them the most effective technicians for these tasks.

For this reason, in Spain, almost all local authorities in municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants employ public works engineers or civil engineers, as well as those in the service management companies they own.

This fact does not occur in the municipalities of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, since traditionally the skills and services that a civil engineer should develop have been assumed by architects and technical architects, who, without detriment to their many capabilities, lack in their original qualifications the specific and detailed training to exercise them, since, although (in the case of the former) they have training in urban planning, all issues related to civil infrastructure, urban hydrology and service management remain outside their scope.

On the other hand, current times have presented local authorities in general, and municipal technicians in particular, with new challenges. Municipal technicians must be agents of the necessary change in an urban planning and development scenario that will never again be the same as it was at the beginning of the 21st century. These changes can be summarized as follows:

  • Urban reform, urban recycling, or urban rehabilitation constitute the great challenge of urban planning in the next cycle (recycling before consuming new land).
  • Urban transformation can no longer be the lifeline for addressing infrastructure, service network, public transport, and other shortcomings.
  • Mobility studies are an excellent tool for establishing priorities among different modes of transport and for obtaining maximum performance from the infrastructure that supports them. To achieve greater effectiveness, they should be included in general planning instruments.
  • It is necessary to increase the proper management of water and sanitation to comply with the requirements of the European Water Framework Directive.
  • Today, there is a wide range of powerful management tools and new technologies that facilitate the work of government agencies, but this requires appropriate predisposition and training from their technicians, since, ultimately, the drivers of change are the managers, not the tools.
  • Currently, the welfare state must be understood as the efficient management of public services. In this regard, the maintenance of public roads and municipal infrastructure, for example, is of particular importance.
  • City councils are basically institutions that provide services to citizens.

Civil engineers, due to their training, have the ideal profile to manage services and develop urban planning and infrastructure, either as civil servants or supporting the administration from outside, performing these tasks with maximum effectiveness and efficiency, as is increasingly evident in numerous municipalities throughout Spain.

For this reason, the Master's Degree in Civil Engineering in the Municipal Area is being promoted, with the following fundamental objectives:

  • To train students in the specifics of civil engineering at the municipal level.
  • To raise awareness among local governments about the important role of civil engineers in the planning, design, and execution of urban infrastructure, as well as in the management and operation of urban services.

2.3.-INFORMATION ON THE SITUATION OF SIMILAR OR RELATED DEGREES IN EUROPE AND SPAIN, AND CONSISTENCY WITH UNDERGRADUATE OR POSTGRADUATE DEGREES*:

The proposed Master's degree in Municipal Civil Engineering is based on the Expert Degree in Municipal Civil Engineering, which was taught at the University of La Laguna in the 2014/15 academic year.

The closest reference to the proposed master's degree is:

  1. He Master's Degree in Municipal Engineering from the University of A Coruña (UDC). This is a 550-hour degree (completed over two years) that began teaching in 2005/06 at the ETSICCP (Educational Education and Training Centre) in A Coruña, partially funded through an agreement with the Provincial Council of A Coruña. The degree's content and competencies are structured into six training modules of varying lengths.

The Municipal Engineering program in La Coruña was designed to meet the same training needs as the proposed degree. The competencies, objectives, and content of some of the six modules are almost completely identical to those of the Master's program proposed in this document.

Other references to the proposed title can be found in the following postgraduate programs:

  1. Master's Degree in Planning and Management in Civil EngineeringOfficial degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (ETS Civil Engineering), 750 hours long (75 ECTS) to be completed in one year, which began in the 2008/09 academic year. More information in this link.

 

  1. Master's Degree in Civil Engineering SystemsOfficial degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (ETS Civil Engineering), worth 60 ECTS to be completed in one year, which began teaching in the 2009/10 academic year. More information in this link.

 

  1. Master's Degree in Urban Planning and Territorial PlanningOfficial degree from San Pablo-CEU University (Higher Polytechnic School), worth 85 ECTS credits to be completed over two years. It has been offered for over 20 years, but its current format began in 2009/10. More information in this link.

 

In developing this draft degree, the following degrees, which are taught at Spanish universities in partnership with other European and trans-European educational institutions, were also taken as a reference:

  1. Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Urban RegenerationOfficial degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), in which the École Nationale d'Architecture de Rabat (ENA) in Morocco, the École Nationale d'Architecture de Tunis (ENAU) in Tunisia, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Hamipur, India, the Istituto Mediterraneo del Design (IMED) in Catanzaro, Italy, and the Regione Calabria (REGCAL) in Italy participate. It is affiliated with the ETS of Architecture of the UPV and has a duration of 120 ECTS, to be completed over two years. It has been taught since 2010/11. More information in this link.

 

  1. Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Hydroinformatics and Water Management. Official postgraduate degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), with the participation of the Universite de Nice – Sophia Antipolis (France), the Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus (Germany), the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (United Kingdom), and the Budapesti Mûszaki és Gazdasagtudomanyi Egyetem (Hungary). It is affiliated with the ETS (Civil Engineering) of the UPC and has a duration of 120 ECTS to be completed over two years. It has been offered since the 2011/12 academic year. More information in this link.

 

  1. Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Flood Risk ManagementOfficial degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, taught in collaboration with the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, the UNESCO IHE – International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Studies, the Netherlands, and the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is affiliated with the ETS (Civil Engineering) of the UPC and has a duration of 120 ECTS, to be completed over two years. It has been offered since the 2011/12 academic year. More information in this link.

 

2.4.-OTHERS*: 

The professional community is demanding the training in Civil Engineering at the municipal level offered by the proposed degree. This is demonstrated by the regular holding of single-topic conferences, such as the "Engineering and Quality of Life in Municipalities" conference (A Coruña, September 22, 2005), and the courses on engineering in local government organized by professional associations and municipal federations (for example, the 120-hour course "The Civil Engineer in Local Government in the Community of Madrid," held periodically since 2011/12).

2.5.-DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONSULTATION PROCEDURES USED TO PREPARE THE CURRICULUM. THESE MAY HAVE BEEN WITH PROFESSIONALS, STUDENTS, OR OTHER GROUPS:

This draft Master's Degree in Civil Engineering in the Municipal Area is being developed by mandate of the Management of the Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering (EPSI) of the University of La Laguna, following discussions held within the framework of the new phase of cooperation between this Center and the College of Technical Engineers of Public Works and Civil Engineers (CITOPIC, Tenerife branch), inaugurated in 2013.

La comisión que ha elaborado el plan de estudios ha estado formada por un representante del CITOPIC y otro de la EPSI. La comisión se ha reunido con periodicidad semanal durante el tiempo que ha requerido la elaboración del plan de estudios y la configuración de este documento.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]