Sara Munoz

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is the oldest and largest of all Technical Universities in Spain. It has more than 3,000 faculty members, around 35,000 undergraduate students, and over 8,000 graduate students. UPM is made up of 21 Technical Schools and Faculties covering Architecture, Engineering, Sport and Fashion Design disciplines. Most of its centers are located in the urban district of Madrid, in the City University of Madrid (north of Madrid), in the Montegancedo Campus (west of Madrid), and in the South Campus (southeast of Madrid), although some of them of more recent creation are spread in the outskirts. UPM graduates around 5,000 students every year, of which 20% have participated in one of the existing international mobility programs. For cultural and historical reasons, UPM has especially strong relations with European and Latin American universities and, from 2004, started a fruitful and increasing cooperation with Asian universities, especially those from China. In relation with that point, around 50 students are being exchanged annually with the leading Chinese Technical Universities. UPM has changed its educative system to be in accordance with the Higher Education European Space directives and now is providing an education based on a 4 years Bachelor level, followed by a 1 to 2 years Master level and the PhD level. At present, UPM is offering 39 Bachelor degrees, 55 Master degrees and 47 Doctoral programs. UPM has a strong commitment to Research and Innovation. Participation in competitive European and National research programs provides 40% of the sponsored research funds, and research services and contracts with the industry supply the rest. UPM ranks first among Spanish universities in the European Union R&D funding, having around 15% of the total number of the European Union funded projects such as the Framework Program, EUREKA and ESA (European Space Agency) held in Spain. In addition, UPM has created ...